Comparative Analysis of Salivary Gland Transcriptomes of Phlebotomus orientalis Sand Flies from Endemic and Non-endemic Foci of Visceral Leishmaniasis
Abstrakt
Two cDNA libraries were constructed from female salivary glands of P. orientalis from Addis Zemen and Melka Werer. Phylogenetic analysis were performed to evaluate differences between the P. orientalis colonies and to show the relationship with other sand fly species from the subgenus Larroussius. we investigated the humoral antigenicity and cross-reactivity of the salivary proteins and the activity of salivary apyrase and hyaluronidase.
Our study expanded the knowledge of salivary gland compounds of sand fly species in the subgenus Larroussius. we showed that P. orientalis is closely related to Phlebotomus tobbi and Phlebotomus perniciosus, whereas Phlebotomus ariasi is evolutionarily more distinct species. We demonstrated that there is no significant difference between the transcriptomes, proteomes or enzymatic properties of the salivary components of Addis Zemen and Melka Werer.
Thus, the different epidemiology of VL in these Ethiopian foci cannot be attributed to the salivary gland composition.