Research article

High degree of conservancy among secreted salivary gland proteins from two geographically distant Phlebotomus duboscqi sandflies populations (Mali and Kenya)

Hirotomo Kato^1,2 , Jennifer M Anderson¹ , Shaden Kamhawi³ , Fabiano Oliveira^1,4 , Phillip G Lawyer³ , Van My Pham¹ , Constance Souko Sangare⁵ , Sibiry Samake⁶ , Ibrahim Sissoko⁶ , Mark Garfield⁷ , Lucie Sigutova⁸ , Petr Volf⁸ , Seydou Doumbia⁶ and Jesus G Valenzuela¹

¹Vector Molecular Biology Unit, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland, USA

²Department of Veterinary Hygiene, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan

³Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

⁴Centro de pesquisa Goncalo Moniz, Fundacao OswaldoCruz, and Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

⁵Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Bamako, Bamako, Mali

⁶Malaria Research and Training Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bamako, Bamako, Mali

⁷Research Technology Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland, USA

⁸Department of Parasitology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

author email corresponding author email

BMC Genomics 2006, 7:226doi:10.1186/1471-2164-7-226

Published:	4 September 2006

Abstract

Background

Salivary proteins from sandflies are potential targets for exploitation as vaccines to control Leishmania infection; in this work we tested the hypothesis that salivary proteins from geographically distant Phlebotomus duboscqi sandfly populations are highly divergent due to the pressure exerted by the host immune response. Salivary gland cDNA libraries were prepared from wild-caught P. duboscqi from Mali and recently colonised flies of the same species from Kenya.

Results

Transcriptome and proteome analysis resulted in the identification of the most abundant salivary gland-secreted proteins. Orthologues of these salivary proteins were identified by phylogenetic tree analysis. Moreover, comparative analysis between the orthologues of these two different populations resulted in a high level of protein identity, including the predicted MHC class II T-cell epitopes from all these salivary proteins.

Conclusion

These data refute the hypothesis that salivary proteins from geographically distinct populations of the same Phlebotomus sandfly species are highly divergent. They also suggest the potential for using the same species-specific components in a potential vector saliva-based vaccine.