Apoptosis in mosquito salivary glands: Sindbis virus-associated and tissue homeostasis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2012

Abstract

Apoptosis is observed during a spectrum of conditions including exogenous virus infection and endogenous cellular turnover. Adult female Aedes albopictus mosquitoes challenged with increasing titres of Sindbis virus (SINV) via intrathoracic inoculation demonstrated that the injection dosage did not result in significantly different levels of virus growth or mosquito survival at day 10 post-infection. Tissues probed for apoptosis using an in situ TUNEL assay revealed SINV-associated apoptotic cells scattered throughout the proximal and distal regions of the salivary gland (SG) lateral lobes but which were not detected in the median lobe or the midgut and hindgut. Apoptosis was also identified in SG duct cells in both infected and uninfected mosquitoes, suggesting routine tissue homeostasis. SINV-associated apoptosis sequestered to the SG lateral lobes indicates a differential epithelial cell response to an arbovirus and provides insight into mosquito defence mechanisms against pathogens and SG infection barriers, hurdles to transmission of arboviruses of public health concern. © 2012 SGM.

Publication Title

Journal of General Virology

Volume

93

Issue

PART 11

First Page

2419

Last Page

2424

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1099/vir.0.042846-0

PubMed ID

22894924

ISSN

00221317

E-ISSN

14652099

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