Aquaporin Identification and Localization in the Asian Citrus Psyllid (Diaphorina Citri) and the Potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli)
Abstract
Aquaporin is a family of major intrinsic proteins found in every living organism which play a vital role in channeling water through cellular membranes. These “water channels” have many roles within insects, some of which involve a complete adaptation of the protein to a novel function not associated to the passive movement of water. Particular interest has been given to insects with unique osmotic challenges, such as those that feed on blood or high water content food sources such as xylem. However, there is little knowledge about aquaporins from phloem feeding insects, which are believed to play a vital role in osmoregulation within the insect as it feeds on hyperosmotic phloem.
Because of this, we identified aquaporins within phloem feeding hemipterans by identifying expressed sequence tags from available databases and assembled these into unigenes for analysis. This analyses assessed how many aquaporins were found in phloem feeders and in which organs or tissues those aquaporins were expressed. We then focused on characterizing psyllid aquaporins. We identified four aquaporins in the potato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli and two aquaporins in the Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri. Using semi-quantitative RT-PCR we investigated the expression pattern of two B. cockerelli and two D. citri aquaporin candidates. For one of the B. cockerelli candidate aquaporin we further assessed its expression by in situ hybridization.
Citation
Hancock, Joseph (2013). Aquaporin Identification and Localization in the Asian Citrus Psyllid (Diaphorina Citri) and the Potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli). Master's thesis, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /157914.