Functional genomics of the horn fly, Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus, 1758)

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Rodrigo Rosario-Cruz¹  Héctor Quiroz-Romero²  Consuelo Almazán³  Lorena Torres³  Ruth C Galindo⁴  Nieves Ayllón⁴  José de la Fuente⁵ 

[1] Centro Nacional de Investigación Disciplinaria en Parasitología Veterinaria, Carretera Federal Cuernavaca-Cuautla 8534, 62550, Col Progreso, Jiutepec, Morelos, CP, Mexico;Departamento de Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Coyoacán, D.F, CP, Mexico;Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, CP 87000, Km. 5 carretera Victoria-Mante, Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico;Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo s/n, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain;Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo s/n, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain;Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University, 74078, Stillwater, OK, USA;

关键词: Serine Protease;    Tick Infestation;    Tick Cell;    Protease Inhibitor Gene;    Gene Expression Silence;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-12-105

 received in 2010-06-07, accepted in 2011-02-10,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe horn fly, Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Muscidae) is one of the most important ectoparasites of pastured cattle. Horn flies infestations reduce cattle weight gain and milk production. Additionally, horn flies are mechanical vectors of different pathogens that cause disease in cattle. The aim of this study was to conduct a functional genomics study in female horn flies using Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) analysis and RNA interference (RNAi).ResultsA cDNA library was made from whole abdominal tissues collected from partially fed adult female horn flies. High quality horn fly ESTs (2,160) were sequenced and assembled into 992 unigenes (178 contigs and 814 singlets) representing molecular functions such as serine proteases, cell metabolism, mitochondrial function, transcription and translation, transport, chromatin structure, vitellogenesis, cytoskeleton, DNA replication, cell response to stress and infection, cell proliferation and cell-cell interactions, intracellular trafficking and secretion, and development. Functional analyses were conducted using RNAi for the first time in horn flies. Gene knockdown by RNAi resulted in higher horn fly mortality (protease inhibitor functional group), reduced oviposition (vitellogenin, ferritin and vATPase groups) or both (immune response and 5'-NUC groups) when compared to controls. Silencing of ubiquitination ESTs did not affect horn fly mortality and ovisposition while gene knockdown in the ferritin and vATPse functional groups reduced mortality when compared to controls.ConclusionsThese results advanced the molecular characterization of this important ectoparasite and suggested candidate protective antigens for the development of vaccines for the control of horn fly infestations.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Torres et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.