Identification of genes associated with blood feeding in the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis

Abstract

BackgroundThe cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) is a blood-feeding ectoparasitic insect and particular nuisance pest of companion animals worldwide. Identification of genes that are differentially expressed in response to feeding is important for understanding flea biology and discovering targets for their control.MethodsC. felis fleas were maintained and fed for 24 h using an artificial rearing system. The technique of suppression subtractive hybridization was employed to screen for mRNAs specifically expressed in fed fleas.ResultsWe characterized nine distinct full-length flea transcripts that exhibited modulated or de novo expression during feeding. Among the predicted protein sequences were two serine proteases, a serine protease inhibitor, two mucin-like molecules, a DNA topoisomerase, an enzyme associated with GPI-mediated cell membrane attachment of proteins and a component of the insect innate immune response.ConclusionsOur results provide a molecular insight into the physiology of flea feeding. The protein products of the genes identified may play important roles during flea feeding in terms of blood meal digestion, cellular growth/repair and protection from feeding-associated stresses.

Transcriptomic profiling of the digestive tract of the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, following blood feeding and infection with Yersinia pestis

“…Drosophila and Galleria mellonella have recently been adapted as models for Y. pestisinsect interactions and have been used to show that the bacterial PhoPQ two-component gene regulatory system and the OxyR transcription factor mediate resistance to AMPs and ROS and are required for colonization of Drosophila and Galleria larvae, as well as the rat flea gut [8,17,18]. In studies of flea physiology and genetics, primarily with the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, many canonical insect responses to pathogens have been observed [7,[19][20][21][22]. Recent studies using cultured Drosophila cells and RNA interference in cat fleas indicate that R. typhi infection is moderated by antimicrobials generated by the immune deficiency (IMD) pathway, the major insect innate immune cascade that detects and responds to DAP-type peptidoglycan, common in Gram-negative bacteria [19].…”

The Biology and Ecology of Cat Fleas and Advancements in Their Pest Management: A Review

“…The proteins from these genes may be important in blood digestion, cellular activities and protection during feeding. This may open new avenues for control [ 118 ]. The salivary constituents, sialome, of C. felis includes many small polypeptides of unknown function.…”

Metazoan Parasite Vaccines: Present Status and Future Prospects

“…In the wake of the genomics revolution, sets of sequence data (i.e., genomes, shot-gun, expressed sequence tags and suppression subtractive hybridization or SSH libraries, microarray and RNA sequencing transcriptomic datasets, etc. ), representing different life stages and different conditions, have been expanding for many metazoan parasite species of economic importance (Anstead et al, 2015 ; Greene et al, 2015 ; Lv et al, 2015 ; Schwarz et al, 2015 ; Tyagi et al, 2015 ; De La Fuente et al, 2016a , b ; Kuleš et al, 2016 ; Arlian and Morgan, 2017 ; Barrero et al, 2017 ). These growing repositories of genetic information enable researchers to gain access to a greater complement of molecules involved in parasite and parasite-host biology, also enabling evolutionary analyses to determine parasite diversity and encoded protein conservation/divergence within and between parasitic and non-parasitic species (Lv et al, 2015 ; Haçariz and Sayers, 2016 ; Barrero et al, 2017 ; Mans et al, 2017 ).…”