G Protein-Coupled Receptors in Anopheles gambiae
Catherine A. Hill,1*
A. Nicole Fox,2*
R. Jason Pitts,2*
Lauren B. Kent,3
Perciliz L. Tan,1
Mathew A. Chrystal,1
Anibal Cravchik,4
Frank H. Collins,1
Hugh M. Robertson,3
Laurence J. Zwiebel2
We used bioinformatic approaches to identify a total of 276 G
protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) from the Anopheles
gambiae genome. These include GPCRs that are likely to play roles
in pathways affecting almost every aspect of the mosquito's life
cycle. Seventy-nine candidate odorant receptors were characterized for
tissue expression and, along with 76 putative gustatory receptors, for
their molecular evolution relative to Drosophila
melanogaster. Examples of lineage-specific gene expansions were
observed as well as a single instance of unusually high sequence
conservation.
1 Department of Biological Sciences, University
of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Program in
Developmental Biology and Center for Molecular Neuroscience, Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
3 Department
of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
61801, USA.
4 Celera Diagnostics, 45 West Gude
Drive, Rockville, MD 20850-1232, USA.
*
These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom all correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: l.zwiebel{at}vanderbilt.edu
