AUTHOR=Hansen Immo A., Attardo Geoffrey M., Rodriguez Stacy D., Drake Lisa L.

TITLE=Four-way regulation of mosquito yolk protein precursor genes by juvenile hormone-, ecdysone-, nutrient-, and insulin-like peptide signaling pathways

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2014.00103

DOI=10.3389/fphys.2014.00103

ISSN=1664-042X

ABSTRACT=<p>Anautogenous mosquito females require a meal of vertebrate blood in order to initiate the production of yolk protein precursors by the fat body. Yolk protein precursor gene expression is tightly repressed in a state-of-arrest before blood meal-related signals activate it and expression levels rise rapidly. The best understood example of yolk protein precursor gene regulation is the <italic>vitellogenin-A</italic> gene (<italic>vg</italic>) of the yellow fever mosquito <italic>Aedes aegypti</italic>. <italic>Vg-A</italic> is regulated by (1) juvenile hormone signaling, (2) the ecdysone-signaling cascade, (3) the nutrient sensitive target-of-rapamycin signaling pathway, and (4) the insulin-like peptide (ILP) signaling pathway. A plethora of new studies have refined our understanding of the regulation of yolk protein precursor genes since the last review on this topic in 2005 (Attardo et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B2">2005</xref>). This review summarizes the role of these four signaling pathways in the regulation of <italic>vg-A</italic> and focuses upon new findings regarding the interplay between them on an organismal level.</p>