| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Antibody responses against <it>Anopheles</it> salivary proteins can indicate individual exposure to bites of malaria vectors. The extent to which these salivary proteins are species-specific is not entirely resolved. Thus, a better knowledge of the diversity among salivary protein repertoires from various malaria vector species is necessary to select relevant genus-, subgenus- and/or species-specific salivary antigens. Such antigens could be used for quantitative (mosquito density) and qualitative (mosquito species) immunological evaluation of malaria vectors/host contact. In this study, salivary gland protein repertoires (sialomes) from several <it>Anopheles</it> species were compared using <it>in silico</it> analysis and proteomics. The antigenic diversity of salivary gland proteins among different <it>Anopheles</it> species was also examined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>In silico</it> analysis of secreted salivary gland protein sequences retrieved from an NCBInr database of six <it>Anopheles</it> species belonging to the <it>Cellia</it> subgenus (<it>An. gambiae</it>, <it>An. arabiensis</it>, <it>An. stephensi</it> and <it>An. funestus</it>) and <it>Nyssorhynchus</it> subgenus (<it>An. albimanus</it> and <it>An. darlingi</it>) displayed a higher degree of similarity compared to salivary proteins from closely related <it>Anopheles</it> species. Additionally, computational hierarchical clustering allowed identification of genus-, subgenus- and species-specific salivary proteins. Proteomic and immunoblot analyses performed on salivary gland extracts from four <it>Anopheles</it> species (<it>An. gambiae, An. arabiensis</it>, <it>An. stephensi</it> and <it>An. albimanus</it>) indicated that heterogeneity of the salivary proteome and antigenic proteins was lower among closely related anopheline species and increased with phylogenetic distance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first report on the diversity of the salivary protein repertoire among species from the <it>Anopheles</it> genus at the protein level. This work demonstrates that a molecular diversity is exhibited among salivary proteins from closely related species despite their common pharmacological activities. The involvement of these proteins as antigenic candidates for genus-, subgenus- or species-specific immunological evaluation of individual exposure to <it>Anopheles</it> bites is discussed.</p>
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