Initial characterization of genes involved in the endocytic and trafficking machinery of the malaria vector mosquito, Anopheles gambiae

For a malaria parasite from the genus Plasmodium to move from the interior of the mosquito midget into the hemocoel, it must traverse cells of the intact midget epithelial lining. We propose that this is accomplished by the exploitation of host endocytic or trafficking proteins. The work presented here represents a bioinformatic characterization of various endocytic and trafficking gene segments and protein fragments that might play a role in the molecular interaction between the ookinete parasite stage and the midget epithelium of host Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. These and other proteins were assessed for amino acid sequence conservation to better understand the evolutionary divergence of the endocytic pathway among four representative species. The fusion protein expression and double strand RNA synthesis work presented here provide the foundation for future investigations of parasite-vector interactions that involve Anopheles gambiae.