use of transcriptional profiles to predict adult mosquito age under field conditions

Age is a critical determinant of an adult female mosquito's ability to transmit a range of human pathogens. Despite its central importance, relatively few methods exist with which to accurately determine chronological age of field-caught mosquitoes. This fact is a major constraint on our abilit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 103; no. 48; pp. 18060 - 18065
Main Authors Cook, P.E, Hugo, L.E, Iturbe-Ormaetxe, I, Williams, C.R, Chenoweth, S.F, Ritchie, S.A, Ryan, P.A, Kay, B.H, Blows, M.W, O'Neill, S.L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 28.11.2006
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
adult insects
Aedes aegypti
Age
Age structure
Aging - genetics
animal age
Animals
Biological Sciences
Calibration
Culicidae - genetics
Datasets
Disease transmission
Gene expression
Gene Expression Profiling
Genes
Hydrocarbons
insect cuticle
Linear regression
messenger RNA
Modeling
Mosquitoes
Mosquitos
Polymerase chain reaction
prediction
RNA
transcription (genetics)
Transcription, Genetic - genetics
transcriptional profiling
United States > US
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Age is a critical determinant of an adult female mosquito's ability to transmit a range of human pathogens. Despite its central importance, relatively few methods exist with which to accurately determine chronological age of field-caught mosquitoes. This fact is a major constraint on our ability to fully understand the relative importance of vector longevity to disease transmission in different ecological contexts. It also limits our ability to evaluate novel disease control strategies that specifically target mosquito longevity. We report the development of a transcriptional profiling approach to determine age of adult female Aedes aegypti under field conditions. We demonstrate that this approach surpasses current cuticular hydrocarbon methods for both accuracy of predicted age as well as the upper limits at which age can be reliably predicted. The method is based on genes that display age-dependent expression in a range of dipteran insects and, as such, is likely to be broadly applicable to other disease vectors.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0604875103
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Author contributions: P.E.C., L.E.H., I.I.-O., S.A.R., and S.L.O. designed research; P.E.C., L.E.H., C.R.W., and S.A.R. performed research; P.E.C., L.E.H., S.F.C., M.W.B., and S.L.O. analyzed data; and P.E.C., L.E.H., I.I.-O., S.F.C., S.A.R., P.A.R., B.H.K., M.W.B., and S.L.O. wrote the paper.
Edited by Barry J. Beaty, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, and approved October 5, 2006
Present address: Sansom Institute, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0604875103