Sreedharan Sandhya, Sankaranarayanan Kavitha
Department of Ion Channel Biology Laboratory, AU-KBC Research Centre, Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, India.
Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 2019 Jan;100(1):e21519. doi: 10.1002/arch.21519. Epub 2018 Nov 19.
Aquaporins (AQPs) are integral membrane channels that facilitate the bidirectional transport of water and sometimes other small solutes across biological membranes. AQPs are important in mediating environmental adaptations in mosquitoes and are considered as a novel target for the development of effective insecticides against mosquitoes. Here, we expressed Aedes aegypti AQP6 ( AaAQP6) in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells and analyzed the water permeability by a conventional swelling assay, that is, a real-time change in cell size corresponding to the cell swelling induced by hyposmotic solution. The swelling assay revealed that AaAQP6 is a mercury-sensitive water channel. Gene expression studies showed that AaAQP6 is highly expressed in the pupae than other developmental stages. Heterologous expression of AaAQP6 in HEK cell was mainly observed intracellularly suggesting AaAQP6 possibly could be a subcellular water channel and may play an osmoregulatory function in the pupae of A. aegypti.
水通道蛋白（AQPs）是整合膜通道，可促进水以及有时其他小溶质在生物膜上的双向运输。水通道蛋白在介导蚊子对环境的适应性方面很重要，并且被认为是开发有效的抗蚊杀虫剂的新靶点。在此，我们在人胚肾（HEK）293细胞中表达了埃及伊蚊水通道蛋白6（AaAQP6），并通过传统的肿胀试验分析了水渗透性，即细胞大小对应于低渗溶液诱导的细胞肿胀的实时变化。肿胀试验表明AaAQP6是一种汞敏感的水通道。基因表达研究表明，AaAQP6在蛹期的表达高于其他发育阶段。在HEK细胞中对AaAQP6的异源表达主要在细胞内观察到，这表明AaAQP6可能是一种亚细胞水通道，并且可能在埃及伊蚊的蛹期发挥渗透调节功能。
