Yellow Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Yellow Fever, including details on immunization, vaccines, symptoms, transmission.

Secreted ferritin: mosquito defense against iron overload?

Geiser DL, Zhang D, Winzerling JJ

Department of Nutritional Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Center for Insect Science, University of Arizona, 1177 East 4th Street, Shantz Building, Room 405, Tucson, AZ 85721-0038, USA. dlgeiser@email.arizona.edu

The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, must blood feed in order to complete her life cycle. The blood meal provides a high level of iron that is required for egg development. We are interested in developing control strategies that interfere with this process. We show that A. aegypti larval cells synthesize and secrete ferritin in response to iron exposure. Cytoplasmic ferritin is maximal at low levels of iron, consists of both the light chain (LCH) and heavy chain (HCH) subunits and reflects cytoplasmic iron levels. Secreted ferritin increases in direct linear relationship to iron dose and consists primarily of HCH subunits. Although the messages for both subunits increase with iron treatment, our data indicate that mosquito HCH synthesis could be partially controlled at the translational level as well. Importantly, we show that exposure of mosquito cells to iron at low concentrations increases cytoplasmic iron, while higher iron levels results in a decline in cytoplasmic iron levels indicating that excess iron is removed from mosquito cells. Our work indicates that HCH synthesis and ferritin secretion are key factors in the response of mosquito cells to iron exposure and could be the primary mechanisms that allow these insects to defend against an intracellular iron overload.

Published 28 February 2006 in Insect Biochem Mol Biol, 36(3): 177-87.
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