Abstract
1. 1. In the mosquito Aedes aegypti, quantitative and qualitative changes have been detected in ribonuclease activity during development. 2. 2. Ribonuclease activity is particularly high in extracts from larvae, relative to that in extracts from pupae or adults. 3. 3. Larval extract is enriched for a ribonuclease that is heat-labile, has an alkaline pH optimum, and is extremely sensitive to the divalent cation, manganese. 4. 4. Extract from adult females is enriched for a heat-stable component that has an acidic pH optimum and is more active at 56 than at 30°C. 5. 5. Throughout the vitellogenic cycle, no major changes in ribonuclease activity were detected in fat body extracts.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 355-361 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology -- Part B: Biochemistry and |
| Volume | 84 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1986 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Extracts from cultured Aedes albopictus cells contain heat-stable and heat-labile activity in approximately equal proportions. In contrast, extracts from intact mosquitoes appear to be enriched for different activities at different developmental stages. Extracts from larval and adult female mosquitoes, respectively, may therefore facilitate further characterization of heat-labile and heat-stable ribonucleases. Acknowledgements--This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI20385). We thank Eleanor Kells and Patti Vendula for typing the manuscript.