Whole transcriptome responses among females of the filariasis and arbovirus vector mosquito Culex pipiens implicate TGF-β signaling and chromatin modification as key drivers of diapause induction

Investigation of gene expression level differences in Culex pipiens (SB) and C. quinquefasciatus (JHB) at three time points (8, 16, and 24 hours post-exposure) during the early pupal state in standard (25°C; 16 h light/8 h dark) and diapause-inducing (18°C; 8 h light/16 h dark) conditions. A forty-eight chip study (4 Expr12x135K slides) using cDNA from total RNA collected from two species in the Culex pipiens complex at 3 time-points during the early pupal stage to study gene expression differences between standard (25°C; 16 h light/8 h dark) and diapause-inducing (18°C; 8 h light/16 h dark) conditions, and between Culex pipiens (diapause) and C. quinquefasciatus (no diapause). Each chip measures the expression level of 18,692 protein coding genes, with 3 probes per gene and two-fold technical redundancy. Each of the 12-plex slides was used for one of four biological replicates. Probes were designed using the C.quinquefasciatus CpipJ1.2 geneset in VectorBase.