Discovery of mosquito saliva microRNAs during CHIKV infection

Mosquito borne pathogens are transmitted to humans via saliva during blood feeding. Mosquito saliva is a complex concoction of many secretory factors that modulate the feeding foci to enhance pathogen infection and establishment. Multiple salivary proteins/factors have been identified/characterized...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS neglected tropical diseases 2015-01, Vol.9 (1), p.e0003386-e0003386
Main Authors: Maharaj, Payal D, Widen, Steven G, Huang, Jing, Wood, Thomas G, Thangamani, Saravanan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aedes - genetics
Aedes - metabolism
Aedes - virology
Aedes aegypti
Aedes albopictus
Analysis
Animals
Arthropoda
Chikungunya fever
Chikungunya Fever - transmission
Chikungunya virus
Chikungunya virus - isolation & purification
Culicidae
Diagnosis
Gene expression
Genetic aspects
Health aspects
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Humans
Infections
MicroRNA
MicroRNAs
MicroRNAs - chemistry
MicroRNAs - genetics
Mosquitoes
Proteins
Saliva - chemistry
Yellow fever mosquito
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Summary:Mosquito borne pathogens are transmitted to humans via saliva during blood feeding. Mosquito saliva is a complex concoction of many secretory factors that modulate the feeding foci to enhance pathogen infection and establishment. Multiple salivary proteins/factors have been identified/characterized that enhance pathogen infection. Here, we describe, for the first time, the identification of exogenous microRNAs from mosquito saliva. MicroRNAs are short, 18-24 nucleotide, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression, and are generally intracellular. However, circulating miRNAs have been described from serum and saliva of humans. Exogenous miRNAs have not been reported from hematophagous arthropod saliva. We sought to identify miRNAs in the mosquito saliva and their role in Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. Next generation sequencing was utilized to identify 103 exogenous miRNAs in mosquito saliva of which 31 miRNAs were previously unidentified and were designated novel. Several miRNAs that we have identified are expressed only in the CHIKV infected mosquitoes. Five of the saliva miRNAs were tested for their potential to regulated CHIKV infection, and our results demonstrate their functional role in the transmission and establishment of infection during blood feeding on the host.
ISSN:1935-2735
1935-2727
1935-2735
DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003386