Muscle Actin Gene from Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)

A recombinant phagemid containing a 1,240-bp insert encoding an actin was isolated from a yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aepypti (L.), complementary DNA library. This insert (pBS-Act35) contained an open reading frame of 822 bp whose deduced amino acid sequence exhibited >95% homology with the carboxyl terminal 274 amino acids of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen and silkworm, Bombyx mori (L.), actin genes. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used to clone and determine the sequence of the additional 306 nucleotides that comprise the 5′ end of the gene. The coding nucleotide sequence of the whole gene (designated Aeact-1) exhibited between 81 and 89% homology with coding sequences of D. melanogaster and B. mort actin genes, and its deduced amino acid sequence exhibited >95% homology with those genes. The highest similarity of Aeact-1 gene at the amino acid sequence level was with B. mori and D. melanogaster muscle actins. Southern blot analysis indicated that the Aedes genome contains at least 5 actin-related sequences.