miRNAs of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus 1762) conserved in six orders of the class Insecta

Abstract

Aedes aegypti L. is the most important vector of arboviruses such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, Mayaro, and yellow fever, which impact millions of people's health per year. MicroRNA profile has been described in some mosquito species as being important for biological processes such as digestion of blood, oviposition, sexual differentiation, insecticide resistance, and pathogens dissemination. We identified the miRNAs of Ae. aegypti females, males and eggs of a reference insecticide susceptible strain New Orleans and compared them with those other insects to determine miRNA fingerprint by new-generation sequencing. The sequences were analyzed using data mining tools and categorization, followed by differential expression analysis and conservation with other insects. A total of 55 conserved miRNAs were identified, of which 34 were of holometabolous insects and 21 shared with hemimetabolous insects. Of these miRNAs, 32 had differential expression within the stages analyzed. Three predominant functions of miRNA were related to embryonic development regulation, metamorphosis, and basal functions. The findings of this research describe new information on Ae. aegypti physiology which could be useful for the development of new control strategies, particularly in mosquito development and metamorphosis processes.

Figure 1

Taxonomic distribution of the 713 conserved miRNAs in class Insecta and their abundance by species.

Figure 2

An interaction graph of the 55 conserved miRNAs from Ae. aegypti in the different orders analyzed. (A) In the UpSet diagram, on the x-axis, a 15 different conservation pattern matrix with miRNAs representing the 6 orders (dotted black lines) is presented; likewise, miRNA abundances of each pattern are illustrated on the y-axis in black bar graph form. (B) Distribution Venn diagram of the 55 miRNAs between the two metamorphoses types analyzed.

Figure 3

Venn diagram with the distribution of miRNAs conserved in organisms of the class Insecta among the three life stages analyzed.

Figure 4

Differential expression of 21 miRNAs in female, male and eggs from Ae. aegypti and their distribution in the class Insecta. (A) Heatmap of the 21 miRNAs with DE (y-axis) in 3 approaches analyzed (x-axis) and (B) conservation patterns of each miRNA between insect orders.

Figure 5

Biological function correlation with abundance of the 55 miRNAs in Ae. aegypti. (A) miRNAs distribution correlated with biological function, (B) miRNA distribution based on categorization clusters and (C) miRNAs expression levels in three life stages. Ho holometabolous, He hemimetabolous.