IP Nervous

Cloning and developmental expression of a lymnokinin-like receptor from the cattle fever tick, Boophilus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae)

S.P. Holmes & P.V. Pietrantonio

Dept. of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2475, USA

The cattle fever tick, Boophilus microplus, is the vector for a serious disease of cattle. The tick is distributed worldwide including Mexico, where some populations have recently developed resistance to commonly used pesticides. Reintroduction of resistant ticks to the United States poses a serious threat to the Texas cattle industry. The molecular targets of pesticides are often cell-surface receptors that regulate critical physiological processes in arthropods. Neuropeptide receptors are potential targets for novel pesticide design. Leucokinins are invertebrate neuropeptides that cause hindgut contraction and are involved in regulating diuresis. Little is known about their mode and molecular site of action. Using reverse transcribed cDNA from unfed tick larvae, we have cloned an entire open reading frame that encodes for a leucokinin-like receptor. The deduced amino acid sequence is 45 % identical to the only other leucokinin receptor known, the lymnokinin receptor from the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed using ?-actin as an internal standard to determine when the cloned receptor is expressed. The receptor is expressed in all life stages of the tick, but most strongly in the adult female and larval stages. The neuropeptide receptor that we have cloned could present a target for a novel acaricide useful in controlling populations of B. microplus.

Index terms: ticks, leucokinin, neuropeptide receptor, disease vector

Copyright: The copyrights of this work belong to the author (see right-most box of the title table). It also appears in Session 13 - INSECT PHISIOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCES, IMMUNITY AND CELL BIOLOGY Symposium and Poster Session, ABSTRACT BOOK II – XXI-International Congress of Entomology, Brazil, August 20-26, 2000 and in Insect Molecular Biology 2000, vol 9 (5):457-465 Title: Cloning and transcriptional expression of a leucokinin-like peptide receptor from the Southern cattle tick, Boophilus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae). Authors: S. P. Holmes, H. He, A.C. Chen, G. W. Ivie and P. V. Pietrantonio.