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THE ANOPHELES GAMBIAE VITELLOGENIN GENE (VGT2) PROMOTER DIRECTS PERSISTENT ACCUMULATION OF A REPORTER GENE PRODUCT IN TRANSGENIC ANOPHELES STEPHENSI FOLLOWING MULTIPLE BLOODMEALS

Mosquitoes made resistant to pathogens through genetic engineering are proposed as a basis for developing a strategy to control disease transmission. Transgenic approaches that introduce exogenous antipathogen effector genes into mosquito genomes require cis-acting regulatory DNA to control tissue-, stage-, and sex-specific transgene expression. We show that control sequences derived from a vitellogenin-encoding gene of Anopheles gambiae, a major vector in sub-Saharan Africa, can direct expression of an exogenous gene in a tissue-, stage-, and sex-specific manner in Anopheles stephensi, a vector of urban malaria in southern Asia. Specific reporter gene expression was observed in fat-body tissues of transgenic blood-fed females, but not in transgenic males or non-blood-fed transgenic females. Multiple bloodmeals resulted in the continuous presence of reporter gene transcripts for at least 12 days. The persistent expression makes the heterologous promoter a good candidate for controlling transcription of engineered antipathogen effector genes in this important malaria vector.

Received December 12, 2006. Accepted for publication March 13, 2007.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Lynn Olson for help in preparing the manuscript.

Financial support: This study was supported by grants from The National Institutes of Health (AI29746) to A.A.J. and by a State Scholarship Fund from China Scholarship Council and National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 30271162) to X.-G.C.

^* Address correspondence to Anthony James, Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, 3205 McGaugh Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3900 Irvine, CA. E-mail: aajames{at}uci.edu

Authors’ addresses: Xiao-Guang Chen, Department of Parasitology, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guang Zhou, GD 510515, P.R. China. Osvaldo Marinotti, Lucia Whitman, and Nijole Jasinskiene, Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3900. Anthony A. James, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, University of California, CA 92697-4025 and Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3900.

Reprint requests: Anthony A. James, Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, 3205 McGaugh Hall, University of California, Irvine CA 92697-3900, Telephone: +1 (949) 824-5930, Fax: +1 (949) 824-2814, E-mail: aajames{at}uci.edu.

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