A Comparative Proteomic Analysis of the Reproductive Organs of Anopheles gambiae

Malaria is caused by the eukaryotic protozoan parasite Plasmodium. Transmission occurs when a female Anopheles mosquito injects sporozoites, the infective form of the parasite, via the saliva during a blood meal. We hypothesize that identification of unique mosquito genes and their products will contribute to the understanding of molecules that can potentially be targeted for malaria control. In this study, a comparative proteomic analysis of the reproductive organs of male and female Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes was conducted. One hundred pairs of ovaries and testes were dissected, and tissues were fractionated on 10% SDS‐PAGE gels. Unique bands were excised from the SDS gel and in‐gel tryptic digestion was performed. A comprehensive proteomic analysis of the eluted proteins was conducted using high resolution mass spectrometry, combined with BLAST analysis of the Anopheles genome. A total of 2435 of the proteins generated were unique to the ovaries while 2104 other proteins were shared with salivary glands, midgut and Malpighian tubules. This study demonstrates the application of high‐resolution mass spectrometry data for comprehensive analysis of the Anopheles gambiae reproductive organs and also illustrates the power of mass spectrometry‐derived data to complement other approaches for genome annotation. Supported by NIH 5R25GM063775