Epithelial innate immunity: A novel antimicrobial peptide with antiparasitic activity in the blood-sucking insect Stomoxys calcitrans
N Boulanger, RJL Munks, JV Hamilton… - Journal of Biological …, 2002 - ASBMB
The gut epithelium is an essential interface in insects that transmit parasites. We
investigated the role that local innate immunity might have on vector competence, taking
Stomoxys calcitrans as a model. S. calcitrans is sympatric with tsetse flies, feeds on many of
the same vertebrate hosts, and is thus regularly exposed to the trypanosomes that cause
African sleeping sickness and nagana. Despite this, S. calcitrans is not a cyclical vector of
these trypanosomes. Trypanosomes develop exclusively in the lumen of digestive organs …
investigated the role that local innate immunity might have on vector competence, taking
Stomoxys calcitrans as a model. S. calcitrans is sympatric with tsetse flies, feeds on many of
the same vertebrate hosts, and is thus regularly exposed to the trypanosomes that cause
African sleeping sickness and nagana. Despite this, S. calcitrans is not a cyclical vector of
these trypanosomes. Trypanosomes develop exclusively in the lumen of digestive organs …