The zinc protease (gp63) of promastigotes was found to play a role in the sand fly part of the Leishmania life cycle. Lutzomyia longipalpis females were fed with promastigotes (10(6) per ml) of a Leishmania amazonensis clone whose gp63 was up- and down-regulated by directional cloning into P6.5 for sense- and anti-sense transcription. Early development was found to differ significantly between the sense- and anti-sense transfectants 2 days post-feeding. The sense transfectants overexpressing gp63 were found similar to those with the vector alone: both developed in the gut at high rates of approximately 90-100% and at a high density with moderate to heavy parasite loads in >70% of the infected females. In contrast, the anti-sense transfectants with gp63 down-regulated developed at a lower rate (approximately 70%) and, significantly, at a very low density, with moderate to heavy parasite loads only in approximately 30% of the infected females. On day 9 post-feeding, all three groups of transfectants developed at a similar rate of approximately 50% with comparable parasite loads. Thus, gp63 plays a role at the early stage of L. amazonensis establishment in L. longipalpis.

Department of Parasitology Faculty of Science Charles University Vinicna 7 Prague 2 Czech Republic

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org

Evidence of a conserved mammalian immunosuppression mechanism in Lutzomyia longipalpis upon infection with Leishmania

The gene expression of Leishmania infantum chagasi inside Lutzomyia longipalpis, the main vector of visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil

Lipophosphoglycan polymorphisms do not affect Leishmania amazonensis development in the permissive vectors Lutzomyia migonei and Lutzomyia longipalpis