The Significance Of Cationic Amino Acid Transporter 5 (CAT5) For Egg Development In The Female Aedes aegypti Mosquito

Female yellow fever mosquitoes Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) are the principal vector of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease. By finding strategies for vector control, mosquito disease transmission can be reduced. A female mosquito takes a vertebrate blood meal and uses the amino acids (AA) to produce essential yolk proteins for egg development. For this process, a spectrum of specific AA transporters are expressed in the Ae. aegypti fat body and there are five cationic amino acid transporters (CATs) encoded in the Ae. aegypti genome. Given that these specific CATs are essential for egg development, we hypothesized that the knockdown of CAT5 will reduce egg numbers in Ae. aegypti. To knockdown CAT5, the DNA sequence was identified using Vectorbase, specific primers were developed for cDNA amplification using RNA of mosquitoes 48 hour post blood meal (PBM). The fragment was purified and cloned in PCR2.1-TOPO, the product was transcribed into double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) for RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knockdown of CAT5. The dsRNA was injected into the female mosquitoes, and three days later they were given a blood meal. Egg deposition was induced and individual egg numbers were determined in CAT5 knockdown and control (eGFP-injected) mosquitoes. The results of this experiment demonstrate the significance of CAT5 in Ae. aegypti reproduction. Research supported by R25 GM048998-13, National Institutes of Health (NIH).