Following a blood meal, neurohormones are released from the brain of a female mosquito that elicit the ovaries to synthesize and release ecdysteroids into the hemolymph. Once released, these ecdysteroids act on the fat body of the female to produce vitellogenin, which is taken up by the developing oocytes in the ovaries. Until now, ovary ecdysteroidogenesis has been characterized only for the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Our research examines ecdysteroidogenesis in female African malaria mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae. In vitro incubations of ovaries were done at different times before and during the gonotrophic cycle. These results were correlated with ecdysteroid hemolymph titer and oocyte yolk deposition taken at the same times in this cycle. The patterns of ecdysteroidogenesis will be compared for these two mosquito species.
Species 1: Diptera Culicidae Anopheles gambiae (malaria mosquito)
Species 2: Diptera Culicidae Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito)
Keywords: ecdysteroidogenesis, gonotrophic cycle
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