生物谷报道：在6月21日的《科学》（Science）上，科学家宣布他们发现了一种蚊子——Aedes aegypti的免疫系统基因能帮助预防病毒在人类中传播。
科学家相信，这种蚊子的免疫系统对于阻止造成黄热病和登革热的病毒传播非常关键——这些疾病每年在全世界范围内感染超过5000万人。
科学家确定了组成Aedes蚊子免疫系统的超过350个基因，结果发现这些基因进化的速度比基因组中的其它基因快得多。而进一步确认这些基因中哪些对病毒的传播有影响将帮助医生找到对抗这些疾病的新方法。其中一个方法是影响这些基因的活性，从而使蚊子更有效的消灭病毒，防止它们传播给人类。
帝国学院的科学家在之前的研究中曾证实，其它蚊子拥有强大的免疫系统，它们能阻止疟原虫的传播。而小组需要进一步确认，这些新发现的基因是否能为蚊子对抗病毒起到同样作用。
由帝国学院博士生Robert Waterhouse领导的这一国际小组主要比较了Aedes蚊子、无害的果蝇以及传播疟疾的Anopheles蚊子的免疫系统基因差异。当比较到两种不同的蚊子时，科学家发现在控制它们的免疫系统的基因方面存在一些相似性，但是也有很大差异。小组的目标是寻找究竟是哪些基因的差异导致其中一种蚊子传播登革热和黄热病，而另一种传播疟疾。
小组成员Christophides博士说：“这表明昆虫的免疫系统似乎是针对面对的不同病原体而以不同速度进化着的。” （援引教育部科技发展中心）
英文原文链接：http://www.physorg.com/news101654981.html
原始出处：
Science 22 June 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5832, pp. 1738 - 1743
DOI: 10.1126/science.1139862
Evolutionary Dynamics of Immune-Related Genes and Pathways in Disease-Vector Mosquitoes
Robert M. Waterhouse,1 Evgenia V. Kriventseva,2,3 Stephan Meister,1 Zhiyong Xi,4 Kanwal S. Alvarez,5 Lyric C. Bartholomay,6 Carolina Barillas-Mury,7 Guowu Bian,5 Stephanie Blandin,8 Bruce M. Christensen,9 Yuemei Dong,4 Haobo Jiang,10 Michael R. Kanost,11 Anastasios C. Koutsos,1 Elena A. Levashina,8 Jianyong Li,12 Petros Ligoxygakis,13 Robert M. MacCallum,1 George F. Mayhew,9 Antonio Mendes,1 Kristin Michel,1 Mike A. Osta,1 Susan Paskewitz,14 Sang Woon Shin,5 Dina Vlachou,1 Lihui Wang,13 Weiqi Wei,15,16 Liangbiao Zheng,15,17 Zhen Zou,10 David W. Severson,18 Alexander S. Raikhel,5 Fotis C. Kafatos,1* George Dimopoulos,4* Evgeny M. Zdobnov,3,19,1* George K. Christophides1*
Mosquitoes are vectors of parasitic and viral diseases of immense importance for public health. The acquisition of the genome sequence of the yellow fever and Dengue vector, Aedes aegypti (Aa), has enabled a comparative phylogenomic analysis of the insect immune repertoire: in Aa, the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae (Ag), and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Dm). Analysis of immune signaling pathways and response modules reveals both conservative and rapidly evolving features associated with different functional gene categories and particular aspects of immune reactions. These dynamics reflect in part continuous readjustment between accommodation and rejection of pathogens and suggest how innate immunity may have evolved.
1 Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
2 Department of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Geneva Medical School, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
3 Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
4 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
5 Department of Entomology and the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
6 Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
7 Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, Twinbrook III Facility, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD 20892–8132, USA.
8 CNRS Unité Propre de Recherche 9022, Avenir-Inserm, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France.
9 Department of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
10 Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
11 Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
12 Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
13 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
14 Russell Labs, Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
15 Yale University School of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
16 Fujian Center for Prevention and Control of Occupational Disease and Chemical Poisoning, Fujian, China.
17 Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai, China.
18 Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556, USA.
19 Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: g.christophides@imperial.ac.uk (G.K.C.); zdobnov@medecine.unige.ch (E.M.Z.); f.kafatos@imperial.ac.uk (F.C.K.)
