Manipulative mosquito semen

During mating, male mosquitoes transfer proteins in their seminal fluid that alters female breeding and feeding behavior. These proteins, identified in a linkurl:study;http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000989 published today (March 15) in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, may serve as potential targets of control of mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever.

Female dengue virus vector Aedes aegypti feeding
Image: Wikimedia Commons, James Gathany

"This work is a milestone in identification of factors that are important for mosquito reproduction," said linkurl:Flaminia Catteruccia,;http://www.vectorbiology.net/ a molecular entomologist at Imperial College of London who was not involved in the research. "It's a first step towards possible novel strategies for [disease] control."Female mosquitoes only mate once, and after they do, their behavior and physiology are different: They are less receptive to mating, lay more eggs, and feed less frequently. The ability to manipulate these behaviors could be a boon to vector control efforts by reducing mating or interfering with egg-laying to control population numbers, or reducing feeding frequently to limit disease transmission. The collaborative study focused on Aedes aegypti, the mosquito responsible for transmitting dengue virus, which afflicts as many as 100 million people each year. Using heavy isotope labeling to make all proteins in female mosquitoes invisible to mass spectrometry, the researchers were able to highlight only those proteins transferred from the male mosquitoes during mating. The team identified nearly 150 male-derived proteins, some of which have conserved sequences with proteins in other species involved in protein activation, fertility, and steroidogenesis, the biological process in which cholesterol is converted to other steroids."I am really excited about the protein that potentially could play a role in steroidogenesis," said coauthor linkurl:Laura Sirot,;http://www.wooster.edu/Academics/Areas-of-Study/Biology/Faculty-and-Staff/Laura-Sirot who studies insect reproductive behavior at the College of Wooster. "It's an obvious avenue where male proteins could have an impact on blood-feeding and egg development."Now the team must work to confirm the functions of these proteins and their effects on female physiology. "The ultimate hope is to use these proteins to find new pathways, new tools for interrupting the blood-feeding cycle or reproductive biology of the species," said Sirot."There is a great deal of interest now in modifying the behavior or physiology of disease vectors in ways that might be useful to control programs," added linkurl:Tracey Chapman,;http://biobis.bio.uea.ac.uk/biosql/fac_show.aspx?ID=365 an evolutionary geneticist at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study. "It's a question now of trying to bridge that gap -- to work out which of the things they found would be most amenable to manipulation and which would be most useful in controlling this vector."L.K. Sirot et al., "Towards a Semen Proteome of the Dengue Vector Mosquito: Protein Identification and Potential Functions," PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2011. DOI: linkurl:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000989;http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000989
**__Related stories:__*** linkurl:Evolution, resisted;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/56011/
[1st October 2009]*linkurl:Fly sex peptide flips behavior;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53981/
[10th December 2007]

**__Related F1000 Evaluations:__** *linkurl:Proteomics reveals novel Drosophila seminal fluid proteins transferred at mating;http://f1000.com/1159832?key=ywbbmbxj9mzjkj7
G. Findlay et al., PLoS Biology, 6(7):e178, 2008. Evaluated by Timothy Karr, Arizona State University.*linkurl:A receptor that mediates the post-mating switch in Drosophila reproductive behavior;http://f1000.com/1098827?key=kfcv183wj1nsqy
N. Yapici et al., Nature, 451:33-7, 2008. Evaluated by Yadin Dudai, Weizmann Institute of Science.