大象传媒

An international research team, including scientists from 大象传媒, hopes its study of the vector 鈥攁lso known as the 鈥渒issing bug鈥� and a major contributor to  鈥攚ill further the development of innovative insect control methods to curb its impact on humans.

Their report, published in , provides new information about the kissing bug鈥檚 evolution and molecular biology. Researchers describe large and unique expansions of different gene families that are related to chemoreception (how they detect chemicals), feeding and digestion. Each of these expansions may have facilitated the insect鈥檚 adaptation to a blood-feeding lifestyle. 

鈥淭hese are nocturnal, blood-sucking insects that feed on animals and people鈥檚 faces at night, while we鈥檙e sleeping,鈥� says 大象传媒 biology professor Carl Lowenberger, one of the paper鈥檚 authors.

The feces of infected bugs contains the Chagas-causing parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi. Once feces are deposited, the parasites enter the body cavity through the puncture wounds in the skin. Chagas disease can also be transmitted through blood transfusion, ingesting infected insects or crushing them in fruit juice. Ingestion by wild animals is likely a major route by which the hundreds of reservoir species become infected.

The researchers identified unexpected modifications of important immune pathways and an absence of several components of the IMD pathway. 鈥淚t seems that R. prolixus has a significantly modified immune system, that may have evolved to prevent the elimination of obligate microbial symbionts on which the insect depends on for its survival,鈥� says Lowenberger.

The parasite that causes Chagas disease is transmitted through fecal contamination rather than through the more efficient salivary gland transmission that occurs for other diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which are transmitted by mosquitoes.

An understanding of how the immune factors of R. prolixus potentially retain or eliminate parasites in the insect's body cavity may lead to novel approaches to control or eliminate the disease.

Lowenberger adds understanding the genome may allow researchers to identify kissing bug-specific genes or processes that can serve as targets for new transmission reducing drugs or insecticides.

Chagas disease is a major cause of mortality in Latin America and the leading cause of cardiac disease in South and Central America.

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