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Salivary AsHPX12 regulates pre-blood meal associated behavioral properties in the mosquito Anopheles stephensi
Seena Kumari1, Tanwee Das De1, Charu Chauhan1, Jyoti Rani1, Sanjay Tevatiya1, Punita Sharma1, Veena Pande2, Rajnikant Dixit1
1 Laboratory of Host-Parasite Interaction Studies, ICMR-National Institute of Malaria Research, Dwarka, New Delhi, India
2 Department of Biotechnology, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India
Correspondence Address:
Rajnikant Dixit,
Laboratory of Host-Parasite Interaction Studies, ICMR-National Institute of Malaria Research, Dwarka, New Delhi
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: 10.4103/0972-9062.328814
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A successful blood meal acquisition process by an adult female mosquito is accomplished through salivary glands, which release a cocktail of proteins to counteract the vertebrate host's immune homeostasis. Here, we characterize a salivary-specific Heme peroxidase family member HPX12, originally identified from Plasmodium vivax infected salivary RNAseq data of the mosquito Anopheles stephensi. Our dsRNA-mediated silencing experiments demonstrate that salivary AsHPX12 may regulate pre-blood meal-associated behavioral properties such as probing time, probing propensity, and host attraction. Altered expression of the salivary secretory and antennal proteins expression may have accounted for salivary homeostasis disruption resulting in the unusual fast release of salivary cocktail proteins and delayed acquisition of blood meal in the AsHPX12 knockdown mosquitoes. A parallel transcriptional modulation in response to blood feeding and P. vivax infection, further establishes a possible functional correlation of AsHPX12 role in the maintenance of salivary physiological-homeostasis, and Plasmodium sporozoites survival/transmission, though the mechanism is yet to unravel. |
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