Phenoloxidase activity acts as a mosquito innate immune response against infection with semliki forest virus

Several components of the mosquito immune system including the RNA interference (RNAi), JAK/STAT, Toll and IMD pathways have previously been implicated in controlling arbovirus infections. In contrast, the role of the phenoloxidase (PO) cascade in mosquito antiviral immunity is unknown. Here we show that conditioned medium from the Aedes albopictus-derived U4.4 cell line contains a functional PO cascade, which is activated by the bacterium Escherichia coli and the arbovirus Semliki Forest virus (SFV) (Togaviridae; Alphavirus). Production of recombinant SFV expressing the PO cascade inhibitor Egf1.0 blocked PO activity in U4.4 cell- conditioned medium, which resulted in enhanced spread of SFV. Infection of adult female Aedes aegypti by feeding mosquitoes a bloodmeal containing Egf1.0-expressing SFV increased virus replication and mosquito mortality. Collectively, these results suggest the PO cascade of mosquitoes plays an important role in immune defence against arboviruses

The Aedes aegypti Domino Ortholog p400 Regulates Antiviral Exogenous Small Interfering RNA Pathway Activity and ago-2 Expression

Arboviruses are pathogens of humans and animals. A better understanding of the interactions between these pathogens and the arthropod vectors, such as mosquitoes, that transmit them is necessary to develop novel control measures. A major antiviral pathway in the mosquito vector is the exogenous small interfering RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway, which is induced by arbovirus-derived double-stranded RNA in infected cells. Although recent work has shown the key role played by Argonaute-2 (Ago-2) and Dicer-2 (Dcr-2) in this pathway, the regulatory mechanisms that govern these pathways have not been studied in mosquitoes. Here, we show that the Domino ortholog p400 has antiviral activity against the alphavirus Semliki Forest virus (Togaviridae) both in Aedes aegypti-derived cells and in vivo. Antiviral activity of p400 was also demonstrated against chikungunya virus (Togaviridae) and Bunyamwera virus (Peribunyaviridae) but not Zika virus (Flaviviridae). p400 was found to be expressed across mosquito tissues and regulated ago-2 but not dcr-2 transcript levels in A. aegypti mosquitoes. These findings provide novel insights into the regulation of an important aedine exo-siRNA pathway effector protein, Ago-2, by the Domino ortholog p400. They add functional insights to previous observations of this protein’s antiviral and RNA interference regulatory activities in Drosophila melanogaster

Identifying the students' corrective textual actions towards teachers feedback

5th World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES) -- FEB 05-08, 2013 -- Rome Sapienza Univ, Rome, ITALYWOS: 000335471200040The aim of present research, to analyze deal of requirements that middle and high school students" fulfillments towards the teachers' feedback comparatively. Research was carried out two groups randomly determined one from middle and other from high school. These groups were asked to produce a short essay in text type. After these texts were collected and evaluated by researchers. Feedback was projected by making explanations on the paper. In the research carried out by ulper (2012), It is indicated that teachers give feedback according to content formation, coherence, word usage, language use, mechanical properties, paper order, holistic quality and text type category. This framework was based on feedback upon students' texts. In the middle stage, the texts were given back to the students and they were asked to rewrite the texts by making adjustments based on that feedbacks. In the last stage, all texts were collected and it was identified that the students' overwrites relating to which feedback categories. According to the result of our study, it has been evidently revealed that students require assistance when correcting. Besides, the students performed a higher rate of acceptable corrections for topic requiring less cognitive effort such as paper layout, mechanic properties. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Near E Univ, Ankara Univ, Bahcesehir Uni