Mucins, the main structural components of vertebrate respiratory, digestive and reproductive tract mucus, as well as insect peritrophic matrix, play important roles in protecting host cells from invading microbes and difficult external environments. Mucins are characterized by highly glycosylated proteins constituting the mucin domain that is rich in repetitive sequences of threonine, serine, and proline (PTS). Despite potential important roles, mosquito mucins remain largely uncharacterized. Here, we performed bioinformatics analyses to identify proteins with PTS repeat domain and predicted 43 mucins or mucin-related proteins in Aedes albopictus. Gene expression analysis revealed that these mucins are dynamically expressed across different development stages and in different organs of Aedes albopictus. Of note, blood feeding upregulated AALF016448 and AALF013291 expression in the midgut, fat body, and ovary, raising the possibility that these mucins play potential roles in reproduction, digestion, and intestinal defense against invading pathogens upon blood feeding. Our in silico identification, followed by expressional validation, thus established a valuable resource for further dissecting the functions of mucins for vector control.

中文翻译：

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粘蛋白的鉴定及其在媒介蚊子白纹伊蚊中的表达

粘蛋白是脊椎动物呼吸道、消化道和生殖道粘液的主要结构成分，也是昆虫围养基质，在保护宿主细胞免受微生物入侵和恶劣的外部环境中发挥着重要作用。粘蛋白的特点是高度糖基化的蛋白质构成粘蛋白结构域，该结构域富含苏氨酸、丝氨酸和脯氨酸 (PTS) 的重复序列。尽管具有潜在的重要作用，但蚊子粘蛋白在很大程度上仍未得到表征。在这里，我们进行了生物信息学分析以鉴定具有 PTS 重复结构域的蛋白质，并预测了白纹伊蚊中的 43 种粘蛋白或粘蛋白相关蛋白。基因表达分析表明，这些粘蛋白在不同发育阶段和不同器官中动态表达。白纹伊蚊。值得注意的是，血液喂养上调了中肠、脂肪体和卵巢中AALF016448和AALF013291的表达，提高了这些粘蛋白在血液喂养时在生殖、消化和肠道防御入侵病原体方面发挥潜在作用的可能性。我们的计算机识别，然后是表达验证，因此为进一步剖析粘蛋白在病媒控制中的功能建立了宝贵的资源。