Ons, Sheila

Richter, Florian

Rivera Pomar, Rolando

Urlaub, Henning

Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Córdoba

14Invited lectures Rolando RiveraTHE NEUROPEPTIDOME OF RHODNiUS PROLiXUS BRAINSheila Ons1, Florian Richter2, Henning Urlaub2, Rolando Rivera Pomar1,31Laboratorio de Genética y Genómica Funcional. Centro Regional de Estudios Genómicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 2Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. Department of Cellular Biochemistry. Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany; 3Departamento de Ciencias Basicas y Experimentales, Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (UNNOBA), Pergamino, ArgentinaChagas’ disease is an important arthropod-borne disease in Central and South America. Recent estimations from the World Health Organization indicated 16-18 million people infected. The disease is vectored by insects, which are the main target of disease spreading. Disruption of the activity of vector physiology through manipulation of regulatory peptides is an attractive direction towards a novel generation of insecticides.In this study we performed a peptidomic analysis of the brain and hemolymph of Rhodnius prolixus. This is the first comprehensive high throughput neuropeptidomic study of a human disease vector to date. Performing off-line nano-LC MALDI TOF- MS/MS analysis with subsequent de novo sequencing and database search, we have identified 42 novel neuropeptides from R. prolixus. Some of the molecules identified present unique characteristics compared to known insect neuropeptides. Peptides identified were classified as extended FMRF-amide-related peptides, sulfakinins, myosuppressins, short neuropeptide F, long neuropeptide F, SIF-amide-related peptides, tachikinins, orcokinins, allatostatins, allatotropins, calcitonin-like diuretic hormones, corazonin and pyrokinin. Some of them were detected in multiple isoforms and/or truncated fragments. Interestingly, some of the R. prolixus peptides, as myosuppressin and sulfakinins, are unique in their characteristic C-terminal domain among insect neuropeptides identified so far. Furthermore, orcokinins, which are a novel family of peptides detected in only a few species, were identified in brain and hemolymph. The presence of orcokinins in hemolymph suggests a neurohormonal role for this molecule. To validate the data, we confirm the presence of peptides in the brain by immunohistochemistry and determine a map of neurosecretory neurons. In addition, our work provides useful information towards the annotation of genes in the ongoing R. prolixus genome sequence project, opens new paths of research in vector biology and in comparative and evolutionary studies of the neuroendocrine system.

The neuropeptidome of Rodhnius Prolixus brain

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Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Córdoba