Blood meal-induced changes to antennal transcriptome profiles reveal shifts in odor sensitivities in Anopheles gambiae

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1302562110
• Publication Date: 2013-04-30T04:27:35Z
• Authors: David C. Rinker; R. Jason Pitts; Xiaofan Zhou; Eunho Suh; Antonis Rokas; Laurence J. Zwiebel
• Keywords: Anopheles gambiae; Blood meal

Olfactory-driven behaviors are central to the lifecycle of malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae and initiated by peripheral signaling in antenna other olfactory tissues. To continue gaining insight into relationship between gene expression olfaction, we have performed cohort comparisons antennal transcript abundances at five time points after a blood meal, key event both reproduction disease transmission cycles. We found that more than 5,000 transcripts displayed significant abundance differences, many which were correlated cluster analysis. Within chemosensory families, observed general reduction level transcripts, although subset odorant receptors (AgOrs) was modestly enhanced post-blood-fed samples. Integration AgOr data with previously characterized excitatory response profiles revealed potential changes receptivity coincided shift from host-seeking oviposition blood-fed female mosquitoes. Behavioral testing ovipositing females odorants highlighted this synthetic analysis identified two unique, unitary cues for An. gambiae, 2-propylphenol 4-methylcyclohexanol. posit modest, yet cumulative, alterations levels modulate odor coding resulting biologically relevant behavioral effects. Moreover, these results demonstrate highly quantitative, RNAseq can be successfully integrated functional generate testable hypotheses.