| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 微生物學研究所 === 98 === Mosquito-borne diseases are the most devastating agents for human beings, due to its high diversity of transmissible pathogens like protozoan and viruses. Despite the efforts from government agencies that have contributed to the eradication of mosquito-borne diseases for several decades, the goal has not been achieved. Therefore, many research institutes turned their attention towards the mosquito life cycle and immune system to halt the disease transmission. Previous studies have already demonstrated that TOR pathway plays an important role in mosquito vitellogenesis, whereas WNT pathway participates in the embryonic development and cell polarity. Besides, it has long been accepted that IMD and Toll pathway regulate the production of antimicrobial peptides. However, the interactions between these pathways are poorly understood. In this study, we propose a hypothesis that factors of TOR and WNT signaling pathway play synergistically in the mosquito vitelloginesis and immune responses. We attempt to characterize components of WNT signaling in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Our results showed that silencing of FZ2, a component of Wnt signaling pathway, and TOR resulted in the decrease of Aedes aegypti survival fitness against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli infection. Interestingly, the oviposition ability has been altered in the absence of FZ2. Also, we demonstrated that FZ2 is highly expressed in the mosquito fatbody at 6 hours post blood meal in terms of transcriptional and translational level, suggesting the amino acid-stimulated feature of FZ2. Our results indicated that FZ2 may interact with TOR pathway and also regulate the antimicrobial responses in the mosquito.
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