Reduced fitness of the mosquito Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) after feeding on a blood meal with hepatitis C virus.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood-borne virus. Given that mosquitoes can take blood meals from HCV patients, we aimed to test whether HCV in the blood meal can induce alterations in the biology of Culex pipiens. To address this aim, Cx. pipiens females were fed HCV-negative blood from healthy individuals or HCV-positive fresh blood samples harvested from viremic HCV patients. Replication of HCV in mosquitoes was confirmed by negative strand-specific RT-PCR and sequencing of RNA extracted from the mosquito bodies 7 days post-feeding. In addition, several parameters that determine the fitness of the mosquitoes were measured. Virus acquisition was associated with alterations in the architecture of the gut microvilli and the immune response, indicated by an increase in phenol oxidase activity. Interestingly, the mosquitoes that were fed the HCV-positive blood meal showed shorter median longevity (8 days) and laid fewer eggs than the control mosquitoes. Furthermore, the offspring of females fed the HCV-positive blood meal demonstrated a lower emergence rate than the controls. In sum, the results indicate that feeding on HCV by Cx. pipiens decreases fitness, which may, in turn, affect its potential as a vector.

Effect of 60 minutes exposure to electromagnetic field on fecundity, learning and memory, speed of movement and whole body protein of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

This study investigated the effect of four different electrical devices as source of electromagnetic field on fecundity, learning and memory function, speed of movement, in addition to the whole body proteins of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The results showed that exposure to EMF has no significant effect on adult fecundity (ANOVA and Duncan's test) but alters learning and memory function in Drosophila larvae, especially those exposed to mobile phone. Highly significant differences occurred in the larval speed of movement after exposure to EMF, with maximal effect occurred for larvae exposed to mobile phone (their speed of movement increased 2.5 times of wild type). Some protein bands serve as characters for exposure to certain electrical devices which suggest that exposure to EMF may affect the whole body proteins.