BACKGROUND Anopheles maculipennis complex, the historic vector of malaria, causes serious medical problems worldwide and exhibits different behaviours. Studying the odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), which influence the chemosensory system and behavioural responses, is essential to understanding the population structure and developing effective control measures against this vector. The present study was designed to identify and analyse the obp1 gene in An. maculipennis. METHODS Adults of An. maculipennis sensu stricto were collected in Zanjan Province, northwest of Iran, and gDNAs of female mosquitoes were extracted. Fragments of An. maculipennis obp1 (Amacobp1) gene were amplified using degenerate and specific primers, and some of amplicons were selected for sequencing. RESULTS Analysis of amplified products identified that the sequence of Amacobp1 gene was 1341 bp long. This gene contains three exons (5', internal, and 3'of 160, 256, and 18 bp, respectively) and encodes 144 amino acids. The sizes of introns I and II in deduced gene are 268 and 358 nucleotides, respectively. The amino acid sequence in the C-terminal of AmacOBP1 is similar to that of major malaria vector Anopheles species. However, its N-terminal has a specific signal peptide with 19 amino acids. This peptide is conserved in different studied populations, and its sequence of amino acids shows the most variation among anopheline species. CONCLUSIONS Degenerate primers in this study are suggested for studying obp1 gene in Anopheles species. Amacobp1 gene is proposed as a molecular marker for the detection of intraspecific ecotypes and diagnosis of different species within Maculipennis Group. Moreover, the N-terminal of AmacOBP1 peptide is recommended as a molecular marker to identify the Amacobp1 expression patterns in different chemosensory organs for assessing the molecular mechanisms and developing novel behavioural disturbance agents to control An. maculipennis.

中文翻译：

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猕猴按蚊中气味结合蛋白1的分子特征。

背景技术疟疾的历史媒介疟原虫复杂，在世界范围内引起严重的医学问题并表现出不同的行为。研究影响化学感觉系统和行为反应的加味剂结合蛋白（OBP），对于了解种群结构和制定针对该载体的有效控制措施至关重要。本研究旨在鉴定和分析An。中的obp1基因。maculipennis。方法成人的。在伊朗西北部的赞詹省采集了严格的maculipennis sensu stricto，并提取了雌性蚊子的gDNA。An。的片段 使用简并特异性引物扩增maculipennis obp1（Amacobp1）基因，并选择一些扩增子进行测序。结果扩增产物的分析表明，Amacobp1基因的序列长1341 bp。该基因包含三个外显子（分别为160、256和18 bp的5'，内部和3'），并编码144个氨基酸。推导基因中内含子I和II的大小分别为268和358个核苷酸。AmacOBP1 C末端的氨基酸序列与主要疟疾载体按蚊物种的相似。但是，其N端具有19个氨基酸的特异性信号肽。该肽在不同的研究种群中均保守，其氨基酸序列显示出按蚊种之间的差异最大。结论本研究中的简并引物建议用于研究按蚊属物种的obp1基因。Amacobp1基因被提议作为分子标记，用于检测种内生态型和诊断Maculipennis组内的不同物种。此外，建议将AmacOBP1肽的N端用作分子标记，以鉴定不同化学感觉器官中Amacobp1的表达模式，以评估其分子机制并开发新的行为障碍剂来控制An。maculipennis。