Eur. J. Entomol. 92 (1): 113-122, 1995
Non-cerebral ecdysiotropic and gonadotropic activities from the mosquito Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)
- N/A
The head is traditionally considered to be the site of production and release of the egg development neurosecretory hormone (EDNH), involved in ovarian maturation in dipterans. We find, however, that the thorax and abdomen of the mosquito Aedes aegypti each possess factors which resemble EDNH in both physiological and biochemical properties. Extracts of thoraces or abdomens each stimulated the dose-dependent appearance of ecdysteroid in incubations of A. aegypti ovaries in vitro. In addition, each extract is capable of stimulating ovarian maturation in vivo in decapitated Aedes atropalpus. The head contains higher levels of activity, absolute and specific, than either the thorax or abdomen, but extracts of all three body portions yield similar chromatographic patterns of activity. Gonadotropic activity in all three extracts elutes in two molecular weight ranges, large (approx. 6,600-7,700 MW) and small (approx. 4,150-4,250 MW). In each tissue, the small molecular weight component is more active than the large component. The roles of these non-cerebral ecdysiotropins and gonadotropins are not clear, but their similarities to cerebral EDNH suggest a function in ovarian maturation.
Keywords: Mosquitoes, Aedes, abdomen, follicle development, oogenesis, vitellogenesis, thorax, brain
Accepted: January 3, 1995; Published: February 24, 1995 Show citation
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.