Flight Muscle–Specific Expression of act88F: GFP in Transgenic Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae)

Authors

Margaret L. Allen, University of California, RiversideFollow
Bruce M. Christensen, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2004

Citation

Published in Parasitology International 53 (2004), pp. 307–314

Comments

Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Used by permission.

Abstract

A strategy to engineer a strain of Culex mosquitoes refractory to filarial transmission is described. A requirement for success of the strategy is identification of a flight muscle–specific promoter that functions in the mosquito. A GFP marker gene under the control of the promoter region of the Drosophila melanogaster act88F gene was inserted into the genome of Culex quinquefasciatus. Transformation was confirmed by Mendelian genetics. Hy-bridization of a genomic Southern blot to a radiolabeled probe verified that the entire donor plasmid integrated into the mosquito genome. GFP expression in the transgenic mosquitoes was restricted to the flight muscles.