Blood Feeding and Plasmodium Infection Alters the miRNome of Anopheles stephensi
et al. (2014) Blood Feeding and Plasmodium Infection Alters the miRNome of Anopheles stephensi. PLoS
ONE 9(5): e98402. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098402
Blood Feeding and Plasmodium Infection Alters the miRNome of Anopheles stephensi
Shanu Jain 0
Vandita Rana 0
Jatin Shrinet 0
Anil Sharma 0
Adak Tridibes 0
Sujatha Sunil 0
Raj K. Bhatnagar 0
Luciano A. Moreira, Centro de Pesquisas Rene Rachou, Brazil
0 1 International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology , New Delhi , India , 2 National Institute of Malaria Research , Dwarka, New Delhi , India
Blood feeding is an integral process required for physiological functions and propagation of the malaria vector Anopheles. During blood feeding, presence of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium in the blood induces several host effector molecules including microRNAs which play important roles in the development and maturation of the parasite within the mosquito. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the dynamic expression of miRNAs during gonotrophic cycle and parasite development in Anopheles stephensi. Using next generation sequencing technology, we identified 126 miRNAs of which 17 were novel miRNAs. The miRNAs were further validated by northern hybridization and cloning. Blood feeding and parasitized blood feeding in the mosquitoes revealed regulation of 13 and 16 miRNAs respectively. Expression profiling of these miRNAs revealed that significant miRNAs were down-regulated upon parasitized blood feeding with a repertoire of miRNAs showing stage specific up-regulation. Expression profiles of significantly modulated miRNAs were further validated by real time PCR. Target prediction of regulated miRNAs revealed overlapping targeting by different miRNAs. These targets included several metabolic pathways including metabolic, redox homeostasis and protein processing machinery components. Our analysis revealed tight regulation of specific miRNAs post blood feeding and parasite infection in An. stephensi. Such regulated expression suggests possible role of these miRNAs during gonotrophic cycle in mosquito. Another set of miRNAs were also significantly regulated at 42 h and 5 days post infection indicating parasite stage-specific role of host miRNAs. This study will result in better understanding of the role of miRNAs during gonotrophic cycle and parasite development in mosquito and can probably facilitate in devising novel malaria control strategies at vector level.
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Funding: The study was funded through Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) Young Scientist grant (SR/FT/LS-109/2011) awarded to SS and through
ICGEB internal funds. SS is a recipient of Ramanujan Fellowship, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and their support is duly
acknowledged. SJ and VR are recipients of senior research fellowships from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. The funders had no role in
study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Vector transmitted diseases are widespread in tropics and
subtropics. Of several vector transmitted diseases, malaria accounts
for more than 200 million cases with India contributing to almost
70% of malarial cases in South East Asia region [1]. Malaria was
brought on the verge of eradication by the success of malaria
eradication program by World Health Organisation in 1950s. But
1990s saw resurgence in malarial incidence due to insecticide
resistance in vectors, drug resistance in parasites, changes in vector
behaviour and lack of infrastructure to fight the disease. India has
an intricate vector dynamics with six primary vectors of the 58
Anopheles species reported in the country [2]. Of these, Anopheles
stephensi is considered as an important vector with its distribution
throughout the Middle East and South Asia region.
Plasmodium passes through sexual and asexual stages of its
development in mosquito and mammals respectively in order to
complete its life cycle. Gametocytes transmitted to mammalian
host by an infected mosquito develop into a motile ookinete which
traverses through midgut epithelium and develop into an oocyst.
Sporozoites burst out of oocyst, travel through hemolymph and
invade salivary gland acinar cells. These sporozoites are then
transmitted to a mammalian host upon next blood meal of
mosquito. The several motile stages of parasite initiate an array of
humoral and cellular immune responses in the mosquito.
Activation of these pathways culminates in production of
antimicrobial effector molecules, which function as either agonist
or antagonist during maturation of Plasmodium parasite [3].
Previous studies have shown that blood feeding and Plasmodium
infection leads to differential expression of genes in the mosquito
[4,5]. Among the various factors known to regulate gene
expression, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as the most
importan (...truncated)