Serine hydroxymethyltransferase controls blood-meal digestion in the midgut of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Abstract Background Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are vectors of arboviruses that cause diverse diseases of public health significance. Blood protein digestion by midgut proteases provides anautogenous mosquitoes with the nutrients essential for oocyte maturation and egg production. Midgut-specific miR-1174 affects the functions of the midgut through its target gene serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT). However, less is known about SHMT-regulated processes in blood digestion by mosquitoes. Methods RNAi of SHMT was realized by injection of the double-stranded RNA at 16 h post-eclosion. The expression of SHMT at mRNA level and protein level was assayed by real-time PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Statistical analyses were performed with GraphPad7 using Student’s t-test. Results Here, we confirmed that digestion of blood was inhibited in SHMT RNAi-silenced female A. aegypti mosquitoes. Evidence is also presented that all SHMT-depleted female mosquitoes lost their flight ability and died within 48 h of a blood meal. Furthermore, most examined digestive enzymes responded differently in their transcriptional expression to RNAi depletion of SHMT, with some downregulated, some upregulated and some remaining stable. Phylogenetic analysis showed that transcriptional expression responses to SHMT silence were largely unrelated to the sequence similarity between these enzymes. Conclusions Overall, this research shows that SHMT was expressed at a low level in the midgut of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, but blood-meal digestion was inhibited when SHMT was silenced. Transcriptional expressions of different digestive enzymes were affected in response to SHMT depletion, suggesting that SHMT is required for the blood-meal digestion in the midgut and targeting SHMT could provide an effective strategy for vector mosquito population control.