Mosquitoes produce proteins to fight stress from hot blood meals
April 26th, 2011 - 6:40 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Apr 26 (ANI): A new study has found that mosquitoes produce heat shock proteins to help them handle the stressful spike in body temperature during and after their hot blood meals.
These proteins protect the integrity of other proteins and enzymes, in turn helping the mosquitoes digest the blood meal and maintain their ability to produce eggs
“These heat shock proteins are really important in a lot of stress responses. Our own bodies make these proteins when we have a fever,” said David Denlinger, professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University and senior author of the study.
Heat shock proteins help maintain the three-dimensional integrity of enzymes and proteins when temperatures rise suddenly, and can target damaged proteins and enzymes for elimination, Denlinger said.
“We think that in this case, they are important to maintaining the integrity of some critical enzymes and proteins involved in digestive processes. When we knock out those proteins, it impairs digestion a bit and as a result the mosquitoes don’t lay as many eggs,” he added.
The research appears this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)
- Making mosquitoes pay for every bite - Jul 20, 2011
- New soybean meal sources 'are good fish meal alternatives' - Feb 08, 2011
- New discovery could shrink dengue-spreading mosquito population - Dec 03, 2010
- New discovery may help prevent malaria transmission - Mar 12, 2010
- Eat wheat flour and almonds to 'satisfy hunger pains' - Apr 24, 2011
- New sensor detects pancreatitis quickly, cheaply - Apr 27, 2011
- New discovery may offer malaria treatments - Jan 29, 2010
- Promising new approach to blocking malaria transmission - Dec 05, 2010
- Biophysicist attempts to block protein to prevent breast, prostate cancer - Apr 20, 2011
- Nutraceuticals in energy drinks, foods - Mar 20, 2011
- Model shows promise to develop therapies for protein folding diseases - Apr 28, 2011
- Stress before cancer therapy may sabotage treatment - Sep 22, 2010
- Chemistry of mosquito sex could be key to controlling dengue fever - Mar 20, 2011
- Preventing mosquitoes from urinating may help control disease spread - Mar 04, 2010
- Key blood component produced from GM rice - Nov 06, 2011
Tags: academy of sciences, biology, blood meal, body temperature, denlinger, digestive processes, early edition, eggs, enzymes, fever, heat shock proteins, hot blood, integrity, mosquitoes, national academy of sciences, ohio state university, proceedings of the national academy, proceedings of the national academy of sciences, spike, stress responses