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N]-urea and be excreted as nitrogenous waste through an uricolytic pathway. Ae. aegypti express all three genes in this pathway, namely, urate oxidase, allantoinase, and allantoicase. The functional relevance of these genes in mosquitoes was shown by feeding allantoin or allantoic acid, which significantly increased unlabeled urea levels in the feces. Moreover, knockdown of urate oxidase expression by RNA interference demonstrated that this pathway is active in females fed blood or 15 NH4Cl based on a significant increase in uric acid levels in whole-body extracts and a reduction in [ 15 N]-urea excretion, respectively. These unexpected findings could lead to the development of metabolism-based strategies for mosquito control.nitrogen metabolism ͉ RNA interference

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