Anopheles gambiae mosGILT regulates innate immune genes and zpg expression

Gene edited mosquitoes lacking a gamma-interferon-inducible lysosomal thiol reductase-like protein, namely (mosGILTnull) have decreased Plasmodium infection, which is linked to impaired ovarian development and immune activation. The transcriptome of A. gambiae mosGILTnull was therefore compared to wild type (WT) by RNA-sequencing to delineate mosGILT-dependent pathways. Compared to WT mosquitoes, mosGILTnull A. gambiae demonstrated altered expression of genes related to oogenesis and 20-hydroxyecdysone synthesis, as well as immune-related genes. In the serendipitous discovery zpg, an essential regulator of germ cell development was found to be one of the most downregulated genes in mosGILTnull mosquitoes. These results provide the crucial missing link between two previous studies on role of zpg and mosGILT in mosquito development. This study further demonstrates that mosGILT has the potential to serve as a target for the biological control of mosquito vectors and to influence the Plasmodium life cycle within the vector. We utilized RNA-seq to compare the transcriptome of mosGILT wildtype and knockout mosquitoes after a blood meal