Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a serious tropical
disease that
affects approximately 500 thousand people worldwide every year. In the
Americas , VL is caused by the
parasite Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi mainly transmitted by the
bite of the
sand fly vector
Lutzomyia longipalpis. Despite recent advances in the study of interaction between
Leishmania and
sand flies , very little is known about
sand fly protein expression profiles.
Understanding how the expression of
proteins may be affected by
blood feeding and/or presence of
parasite in the vector's midgut might allow us to devise new
strategies for controlling the spread of
leishmaniasis . In this
work , we
report the characterization of a
vacuolar ATPase subunit C from L. longipalpis by
screening of a midgut
cDNA library with a 220 bp fragment identified by means of differential display
reverse transcriptase -
polymerase chain reaction analysis . The expression of the
gene varies along
insect development and is upregulated in
males and bloodfed L. longipalpis, compared to unfed
flies .