Analysis of ESTs from Lutzomyia longipalpis sand flies and their contribution toward understanding the insect–parasite relationship

An expressed sequence tag library has been generated from a sand fly vector of visceral leishmaniasis, Lutzomyia longipalpis. A normalized cDNA library was constructed from whole adults and 16,608 clones were sequenced from both ends and assembled into 10,203 contigs and singlets. Of these 58% showed significant similarity to known genes from other organisms, < 4% were identical to described sand fly genes, and 42% had no match to any database sequence. Our analyses revealed putative proteins involved in the barrier function of the gut (peritrophins, microvillar proteins, glutamine synthase), digestive physiology (secreted and membrane-anchored hydrolytic enzymes), and the immune response (gram-negative binding proteins, thioester proteins, scavenger receptors, galectins, signaling pathway factors, caspases, serpins, and peroxidases). Sequence analysis of this transcriptome dataset has provided new insights into genes that might be associated with the response of the vector to the development of Leishmania.