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Molecular and Cellular Biology, January 2001, p. 164-174, Vol. 21, No. 1
Department of Entomology and Program in
Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
48824,1 and Department of Physiology
and Molecular Biodiversity, Institut de Biologia Molecular de
Barcelona, CID, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain2
Received 9 June 2000/Returned for modification 24 July
2000/Accepted 16 October 2000
In anautogenous mosquitoes, vitellogenesis, the key event in egg
maturation, requires a blood meal. Consequently, mosquitoes are vectors
of many devastating human diseases. An important adaptation for
anautogenicity is the previtellogenic arrest (the state of arrest)
preventing the activation of the yolk protein precursor (YPP) genes Vg and VCP prior to
blood feeding. A novel GATA factor (AaGATAr) that recognizes GATA
binding motifs (WGATAR) in the upstream region of the YPP
genes serves as a transcriptional repressor at the state of arrest.
Importantly, AaGATAr can override the 20-hydroxyecdysone
transactivation of YPP genes, and its transcriptional repression involves the recruitment of CtBP, one of the universal corepressors. AaGATAr transcript is present only in the adult female
fat body. Furthermore, in nuclear extracts of previtellogenic fat
bodies with transcriptionally repressed YPP genes, there is a GATA binding protein forming a band with mobility similar to that of
AaGATAr. The specific repression of YPP genes by AaGATAr in
the fat body of the female mosquito during the state of arrest represents an important molecular adaptation for anautogenicity.
0270-7306/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.21.1.164-174.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
A Novel GATA Factor Transcriptionally Represses Yolk Protein
Precursor Genes in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti via
Interaction with the CtBP Corepressor

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Entomology and Program in Genetics, S-150 Plant Biology Building,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. Phone: (517)
353-7144. Fax: (517) 353-3396. E-mail:
araikhel{at}pilot.msu.edu.
Present address: Department of Physiology and Molecular
Biodiversity, Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona, CID, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain.
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