Bioinformatic analysis and annotation of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated from Anopheles sinensis mosquitoes challenged with apoptosis-inducing chemical, actinomycin-D

Abstract

In 1993, after 10 years of absence, malaria re-emerged in the Republic of Korea in Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Anopheline mosquitoes are known to play a critical role in malaria transmission. Several studies have used gene expression data to examine the transcription responses of Anopheles gambiae after microbial and Plasmodium infections; however, as of now, there have been no reports of studies concerning the innate immune response and apoptosis in Anopheles sinensis. We have constructed two independent cDNA libraries from An. sinensis challenged with actinomycin-D (T, treated with apoptosis-inducing chemical) and without actinomycin-D (C, control). Analysis of the 5704 (C, 2848; T, 2856) expression sequence tags (ESTs) generated from these libraries identified 884 contigs (C, 421; T, 463) and 2180 singletons (C, 1038; T, 1142) with average lengths of 831 and 817bp, respectively. Furthermore, comparison of our EST sequences against the eukaryotic orthologous group database showed that 4324 (75.82%) of 5704 sequences could be grouped into three major functional categories. These EST data provide the basis for further studies characterizing the molecular mechanisms of midgut apoptosis.