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Science 22 June 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5832, pp. 1738 - 1743
DOI: 10.1126/science.1139862

Reports

Evolutionary Dynamics of Immune-Related Genes and Pathways in Disease-Vector Mosquitoes

Robert M. Waterhouse,1 Evgenia V. Kriventseva,2,3 Stephan Meister,1 Zhiyong Xi,4 Kanwal S. Alvarez,5 Lyric C. Bartholomay,6 Carolina Barillas-Mury,7 Guowu Bian,5 Stephanie Blandin,8 Bruce M. Christensen,9 Yuemei Dong,4 Haobo Jiang,10 Michael R. Kanost,11 Anastasios C. Koutsos,1 Elena A. Levashina,8 Jianyong Li,12 Petros Ligoxygakis,13 Robert M. MacCallum,1 George F. Mayhew,9 Antonio Mendes,1 Kristin Michel,1 Mike A. Osta,1 Susan Paskewitz,14 Sang Woon Shin,5 Dina Vlachou,1 Lihui Wang,13 Weiqi Wei,15,16 Liangbiao Zheng,15,17 Zhen Zou,10 David W. Severson,18 Alexander S. Raikhel,5 Fotis C. Kafatos,1*{dagger} George Dimopoulos,4* Evgeny M. Zdobnov,3,19,1*{dagger} George K. Christophides1*{dagger}

Mosquitoes are vectors of parasitic and viral diseases of immense importance for public health. The acquisition of the genome sequence of the yellow fever and Dengue vector, Aedes aegypti (Aa), has enabled a comparative phylogenomic analysis of the insect immune repertoire: in Aa, the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae (Ag), and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Dm). Analysis of immune signaling pathways and response modules reveals both conservative and rapidly evolving features associated with different functional gene categories and particular aspects of immune reactions. These dynamics reflect in part continuous readjustment between accommodation and rejection of pathogens and suggest how innate immunity may have evolved.

1 Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
2 Department of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Geneva Medical School, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
3 Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
4 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
5 Department of Entomology and the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
6 Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
7 Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, Twinbrook III Facility, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD 20892–8132, USA.
8 CNRS Unité Propre de Recherche 9022, Avenir-Inserm, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France.
9 Department of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
10 Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
11 Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
12 Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
13 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
14 Russell Labs, Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
15 Yale University School of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
16 Fujian Center for Prevention and Control of Occupational Disease and Chemical Poisoning, Fujian, China.
17 Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai, China.
18 Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556, USA.
19 Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: g.christophides{at}imperial.ac.uk (G.K.C.); zdobnov{at}medecine.unige.ch (E.M.Z.); f.kafatos{at}imperial.ac.uk (F.C.K.)

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