Salivary gland transcripts of the kissing bug, Panstrongylus chinai, a vector of Chagas disease

- The salivary gland transcripts of Panstrongylus chinai were analyzed.
- The most abundant transcripts coding for secreted proteins were identified.
- This is the second description of salivary transcripts from Panstrongylus species, a vector of Chagas disease.
- The present analysis will provide further insights into the evolution of salivary components in blood sucking arthropods.

The saliva of hematophagous arthropods injected during blood feeding contains potent pharmacologically active components to counteract the host hemostatic and inflammatory systems. In the present study, dominant salivary gland transcripts of Panstrongylus chinai, a vector of Chagas disease, were analyzed by sequencing randomly selected clones of the salivary gland cDNA library. This analysis showed that 56.5% of the isolated transcripts coded for putative secreted proteins, of which 73.7% coded for proteins belonging to the lipocalin family. The most abundant transcript of lipocalin family proteins was a homologue of pallidipin 2, an inhibitor of collagen-induced platelet aggregation of Triatoma pallidipennis. In addition, homologues of triafestin, an inhibitor of the kallikrein-kinin system of T. infestans, were identified as the dominant transcript. Other salivary transcripts encoding lipocalin family proteins had homology to triplatin (an inhibitor of platelet aggregation) and others with unknown function. Other than lipocalin family proteins, homologues of a Kazal-type serine protease inhibitor (putative anticoagulant), a hemolysin-like protein (unknown function), inositol polyphosphate 5-related protein (a regulator of membrane phosphoinositide), antigen 5-related protein (unknown function) and apyrase (platelet aggregation inhibitor) were identified.

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