Candidate biomarkers for mosquito age-grading identified by label-free quantitative analysis of protein expression in Aedes albopictus females

摘要

We applied a "shotgun" approach based on nanoliquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry associated to label free quantification (LFQ) to identify proteins varying with age, independently from the physiological state, in Aedes albopictus, a mosquito species which in the last decades invaded temperate regions in North America and Europe, creating concerns for associated high nuisance and risk of arbovirus transmission. The combined "shotgun" and LFQ approach was shown to be highly suitable to simultaneously compare several biological samples, as needed in a study aimed to analyze different age-groups and physiological states of adult mosquito females. The results obtained represent the first wide-scale analysis of protein expression in Ae. albopictus females: >1000 and 665 proteins were identified from few micrograms of crude protein extracts of mosquito heads and thoraxes, respectively. Six of these proteins were shown to significantly vary from 2- to 16-day-old females, independently from their physiological state (i.e. virgin, mated, host-seeking, blood-fed, and gravid).