The serpin gene family in Anopheles gambiae

Crystal structure of native Anopheles gambiae serpin-2, a negative regulator of melanization in mosquitoes.

Serpins are the dominant group of protease inhibitors in metazoans that control a wide variety of biological processes including major innate immune reactions. One of these inhibitors, SRPN2, controls melanization in mosquitoes – a powerful, arthropod-specific innate immune response. SRPN2 depletion from the hemolymph of adult female mosquitoes significantly reduces longevity and therefore this...

Female-biased gene expression in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae

Females of the malaria-carrying mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, must deal with a number of tasks never confronted by males, including blood-feeding and defense against Plasmodium infection. Here, we examine global gene expression differences between the sexes in A. gambiae via Affymetrix GeneChip® microarrays and find a dramatic over-representation of genes expressed more highly in females. Approx...

Allelic Gene Structure Variations in Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes

BACKGROUND Allelic gene structure variations and alternative splicing are responsible for transcript structure variations. More than 75% of human genes have structural isoforms of transcripts, but to date few studies have been conducted to verify the alternative splicing systematically. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The present study used expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and EST tagged SNP pat...

Proteomics of Anopheles gambiae

Immunity-related genes and gene families in Anopheles gambiae.

We have identified 242 Anopheles gambiae genes from 18 gene families implicated in innate immunity and have detected marked diversification relative to Drosophila melanogaster. Immune-related gene families involved in recognition, signal modulation, and effector systems show a marked deficit of orthologs and excessive gene expansions, possibly reflecting selection pressures from different patho...