Skip Navigation



Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on October 10, 2007
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm067
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
33/1/79    most recent
bjm067v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kent, L. B.
Right arrow Articles by Robertson, H. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kent, L. B.
Right arrow Articles by Robertson, H. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Gr Family of Candidate Gustatory and Olfactory Receptors in the Yellow-Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti

Lauren B. Kent, Kimberly K.O. Walden and Hugh M. Robertson

Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 S. Goodwin, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Hugh M. Robertson, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 320 Morrill Hall, mc-118, 505 S. Goodwin, Urbana, IL 61801 USA. e-mail: hughrobe{at}life.uiuc.edu


  Abstract

The gustatory receptor (Gr) protein family contains most of the diversity in the insect chemoreceptor superfamily, including within it not only taste receptors but select olfactory receptors as well. Manual annotation of the Gr family in the genome sequence of the yellow-fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, yielded a total of 114 potential proteins encoded by 79 genes. In the sequenced genome, 23 of these genes and protein isoforms are pseudogenic, leaving 91 putatively functional Grs. Comparison with our previously published set of 76 Grs encoded by 52 genes in the distantly related Anopheles gambiae mosquito revealed 13 new AgGrs encoded by 8 genes. Phylogenetic analysis reveals the conservation of carbon dioxide, sugar, and several orphan receptors in these 2 mosquitoes and Drosophila flies. On the other hand, most of these Grs are unique to mosquitoes and many are specific to the Aedes or Anopheles lineages, indicating their involvement in mosquito-specific aspects of both gustatory and olfactory perception. In particular, most instances of alternative splicing in orthologous loci appear to have evolved after the culicine–anopheline split ±150 million years ago.

Key words: chemoreceptor, gene annotation, gene phylogeny, molecular evolution, olfaction, taste

Accepted 31 August 2007


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
C. Smadja, P. Shi, R. K. Butlin, and H. M. Robertson
Large Gene Family Expansions and Adaptive Evolution for Odorant and Gustatory Receptors in the Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum
Mol. Biol. Evol., September 1, 2009; 26(9): 2073 - 2086.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Chem SensesHome page
S. R. Hill, B. S. Hansson, and R. Ignell
Characterization of Antennal Trichoid Sensilla from Female Southern House Mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus Say
Chem Senses, March 1, 2009; 34(3): 231 - 252.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.