VectorInfo: A web resource for medically important Indian arthropod disease vectors

Highlights

• VectorInfo is the first database on Indian disease vectors.

• 53 Indian disease vectors were documented with biological and omics information.

• Provide free access to browse and download the data.

Abstract

VectorInfo is a freely accessible web resource, emphasised on medically important Indian arthropods funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and maintained by one of its premier institute, Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC). VectorInfo elucidates and curates medically important Indian arthropod's biological, omics technologies to adopt a holistic view of the molecules that make up an organism, aimed at the detection of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, enzymes & pathways and immune specific genes. The nitty-gritty of VectorInfo is aimed at scrutinizing all the possible information on Indian disease vectors in a single window for the scientific community. The database affords 53 medically important Indian arthropod's biological and omics information well-structured and provided with downloadable facilities. In addition to this, huge number of research articles were mined in the quest for gathering the recommended insecticide targets and their mechanisms, that pave ways to design and develop novel lead molecules through computational means. This current up-to-date database contains 2,498 omics entries beneficial for the molecular studies and analysis. In order to maintain regular updates, user forms were provided for the scientific community to submit research data to the database administrator. The VectorInfo furthermore conveys various resources for vector control and diagnostics and the links to the crucial software tools used for the Bioinformatics analysis.

Introduction

VectorInfo, a first ever digital repository of medically important Indian arthropods known to pose serious threat to humans and livestock, is organised from the research articles and available Bioinformatics resources. Vector is an organism, typically a biting insect used as a vehicle that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal or plant to another. Vector does not only cause disease itself but spreads infection by conveying pathogens (infectious agent) from one host to another (Lambin et al., 2010; Marquardt, 2004; Sinkins and Gould, 2006). Arthropods such as mosquitoes, flies, fleas, ticks and mites are the major vectors for transmitting diseases. The infectious diseases or illness caused by an infectious microbe that is transmitted to people or animal by vectors are called vector-borne diseases (Gubler, 1998; Kitron, 1998; WHO, 2014a). Generally, in vector-borne diseases, the vector is susceptible to infection and survive long enough for parasite to complete multiplication and or development.

Vectors and vector-borne diseases have now become a global public health threat with more than half of a world's population at risk (Gubler, 2010; WHO, 2014b). Control of these disease causing vectors require a complete knowledge on biology of each species as they have different breeding habitats and behaviours like some bite at daytime and some at night. A total of 53 species were identified in India based on the extensive literature survey which are identified as medically important species triggering numerous infectious diseases. All these resources were provided as references at Vectorinfo.

The key information related to vectors such as Genes and genome sequences, Coding sequences (CDS), proteins and metabolic pathways were documented in a systemic way enabling users to browse and retrieve any relevant data. Further, immunobiology of each disease vector is comprehensively documented to explain the immunogenic response in the host along with the immune specific genes (Hillyer, 2016; Kumar and Paily, 2008; Rodrigues et al., 2007; Xi et al., 2008).

Insecticides are the chemical or biological agents including ovicides and larvicides used to kill insects at different developmental stages like adults, egg and larvae. The mode of action outlines how the insecticide kills or inactivates the insect. Vector control, through the use of insecticides, play a key role in the prevention and control of infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, and filariasis (Rivero et al., 2010). The insecticide resistance in the vector population has been considered as a major threat in all insect groups that serve as vectors of emerging diseases. World Health Organization (WHO) defined insecticide resistance as the ability of an insect to withstand the effects of an insecticide by becoming resistant to its toxic effects by means of natural selection and mutations. The metabolic resistance, target site resistance, reduced penetration and behavioural avoidance are the general mechanisms by which the vectors procure insecticide resistance (Quiñones et al., 2015). The biological control using the introduction of predators like larvivorous fish into the environment and the oil formulations using medicinal plant extract are the other measures to control insects (Dinesh et al., 2015; Verma et al., 2016). All such information is well documented in the Vectorinfo about the insecticides with comprehensive explanations.

Hence, as a first attempt in India, VectorInfo, a repository of Medically Important Indian Arthropods is initiated to bring out the vector information ranging through basic biology, molecular aspects and control strategies for the researchers to facilitate the studies on vectors and vector-borne diseases.