| Affiliations: | Genetics & Genomics Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | Hitoshi Tsujimoto Hitoshi.Tsujimoto@agnet.tamu.edu Entomology |
| Faculty Mentor: | Zachary N. Adelman, Ph.D |
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Meeting Times:
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Tue. 3:30 |
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Team Size:
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2
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Potentially present in a local or national conferences, co-authorship on publications
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Team Needs:
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Strong interest to learn molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry. Patience and ability to keep up a potentially fast pace of experimental processes. Ability to be thoughtful to the team members and other lab members.Participants are required to register for credits to work in the lab. |
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Description:
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We study the physiology and genetics of the mosquito, Aedes aegypti, which transmits dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses. The viruses are transmitted when an infected mosquito feed blood. The blood is required for mosquito reproduction. While blood is an excellent source of proteins and other nutrients for the development of their eggs, it contains a large amount of iron in the form of hemoglobin, which can be toxic to the mosquito. The fact that mosquitoes have no problems with the blood suggests that they have fine-tuned mechanisms to control iron uptake and limitation from the blood. This also suggests that disrupting iron metabolism in mosquitoes could be used to reduce their population. To that end, we searched potential iron transporters in the mosquito and found 4 candidate genes. When we reduced the expression of the genes by RNA interference (RNAi), we observed a significant reduction in egg numbers and the rate of hatching for one gene. Now we are investigating this gene’s molecular characteristics using various methods. Although this gene is a potential iron transporter, due to its drastic impact on the mosquito’s reproductive physiology, we suspect that it could transport other substrates. We will be using a mosquito cell line, yeast, and Xenopus (frog) oocyte expression systems to characterize its substrates. We also use RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 knockout technologies to investigate other physiological roles of this gene. |