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Science 4 October 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5591, pp. 159 - 165
DOI: 10.1126/science.1077136

Research Articles

Immunity-Related Genes and Gene Families in Anopheles gambiae

George K. Christophides,1* Evgeny Zdobnov,1* Carolina Barillas-Mury,2 Ewan Birney,3 Stephanie Blandin,1 Claudia Blass,1 Paul T. Brey,4 Frank H. Collins,5 Alberto Danielli,1 George Dimopoulos,6 Charles Hetru,7 Ngo T. Hoa,8 Jules A. Hoffmann,7 Stefan M. Kanzok,8 Ivica Letunic,1 Elena A. Levashina,1 Thanasis G. Loukeris,9 Gareth Lycett,1 Stephan Meister,1 Kristin Michel,1 Luis F. Moita,1 Hans-Michael Müller,1 Mike A. Osta,1 Susan M. Paskewitz,10 Jean-Marc Reichhart,7 Andrey Rzhetsky,11 Laurent Troxler,7 Kenneth D. Vernick,12 Dina Vlachou,1 Jennifer Volz,1 Christian von Mering,1 Jiannong Xu,12 Liangbiao Zheng,8 Peer Bork,1 Fotis C. Kafatos1dagger

We have identified 242 Anopheles gambiae genes from 18 gene families implicated in innate immunity and have detected marked diversification relative to Drosophila melanogaster. Immune-related gene families involved in recognition, signal modulation, and effector systems show a marked deficit of orthologs and excessive gene expansions, possibly reflecting selection pressures from different pathogens encountered in these insects' very different life-styles. In contrast, the multifunctional Toll signal transduction pathway is substantially conserved, presumably because of counterselection for developmental stability. Representative expression profiles confirm that sequence diversification is accompanied by specific responses to different immune challenges. Alternative RNA splicing may also contribute to expansion of the immune repertoire.

1 European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
2 Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology (MIP), Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1682, USA.
3 European Bioinformatics Institute-European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK.
4 Unité de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire des Insectes, Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr. Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France.
5 Center for Tropical Disease Research and Training, University of Notre Dame, Post Office Box 369, Notre Dame, IN 46556-0369, USA.
6 Department of Biological Sciences, Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
7 Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Unité Propre de Recherche, 9022 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 15 rue Descartes, F67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
8 Yale University School of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
9 Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology-Foundation of Research and Technology Hellas, Vassilika Vouton, Post Office Box 1527, GR-711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
10 Department of Entomology, 237 Russell Lab, 1630 Linden Drive, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
11 Columbia Genome Center and Department of Medical Informatics, Columbia University, Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion, 1150 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York, NY 10032, USA.
12 Department of Medical and Molecular Parasitology, New York University School of Medicine, 341 East 25th Street, Room 613, New York, NY 10010, USA.
*   These authors contributed equally to this work.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dg-office{at}embl-heidelberg.de


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