Rabbits immunized with polypeptides of midgut of glucose fed A. stephensi resulted in high titer of antibodies (10(4)-10(6)) as detected by ELISA. Effect of antisera on fecundity, hatchability and engorgement was investigated. Fecundity was reduced drastically (62.4%). Eight polypeptides were recognized by the antisera raised against midgut tissues viz., 92, 85, 55, 52, 45, 38, 29 and 13 kDa. C...

Two new crystal protein genes, cry19A and orf2, isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. jegathesan were cloned and characterized. The cry19A gene encodes a 74.7-kDa protein, and the orf2 gene encodes a 60-kDa protein. Cry19A contains the five conserved blocks present in most B. thuringiensis delta-endotoxins. The ORF2 amino acid sequence is similar to that of the carboxy terminus of Cry4 pr...

District of Jiroft is situated in south-east of Iran which is one of the malarious regions. Anopheles stephensi is considered as one of the main malaria vector in this region. Ecology of this species was studied in the area to understand its vector behavior for implementation of effective vector control measures. Different methods like total catch, pit shelter, night bite collection on human an...

Ligand-blotting experiments on dipteran brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) showed binding of CryIVD toxin of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis to proteins of 148 kDa in Anopheles stephensi and of 78 kDa in Tipula oleracea, both species being susceptible to CryIVD. Binding of CryIVD with BBMVs of A. stephensi resulted in a stronger signal than with BBMVs of T. oleracea. Likewise, lar...

BACKGROUND Biting habit of mosquitoes plays an important role in the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes use a set of elaborate sensory modalities to find their preferred hosts by exploiting cues emanating from a nearby host. It has been suggested that the chemical profile of skin can provide further support for anthropophilic mosquito species to find their suitable hosts. This ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Development of insect resistance to synthetic pesticides, high operational cost and environmental pollution have created the need for developing alternative approaches to control vector-borne diseases. In the present study, larvicidal activity of flavonoid extracts of different parts of Vitex negundo (Linnaeus) and Andrographis paniculata (Nees) have been studied against...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Vector control, using agents of chemical origin, continues to be practiced in the control of vector borne diseases. However, due to some drawbacks including lack of selectivity, environmental contamination, and emergence and spread of vector resistance, development of natural products for vector control has been a priority in this area. In the present study we evaluated t...

The introduction of exogenous genes into the genomes of mosquitoes requires microinjection techniques tailored to the specific species of interest. This video protocol demonstrates a method used by the James laboratory to microinject DNA constructs into Anopheles stephensi embryos for the generation of transformed mosquitoes. Techniques for preparing microinjection needles, collecting and prepa...

P rofessor Stephen Holgate comments on our statement that “the new UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) puts more emphasis on bibliometric data and less on peer review than did its predecessor” [1]. As the Chair of Main Panel A of REF 2014, he describes the informed peer review process in his domain. In our opinion, peer review can indeed be considered as an ideal way of evaluating research. ...