Introduction
Mosquitoes are remembered by most as being the bane of the outdoor barbecue; the reason that bug zappers were invented. However, mosquitoes are not really as bad as some people think. To begin with, mosquitoes are equal opportunity pests. They will go after anything with blood, not just human flesh. In fact, it is only the female mosquito who bites; the male mosquitoes don't drink blood and are relatively innocent. Finally, mosquitoes are extremely well adapted to what they do. When a female mosquito bites an animal, certain chemicals in the animal's blood tell her when she has hit a blood vessel. Then, the mosquito's specialized saliva kicks in to keep the wound from clotting. In this manner, a typical 2 mg. mosquito can take in two to three times its own weight in blood.
Experiment One
When a mosquito takes in blood, it needs to be able to break the proteins in that blood down into their component amino acids in order to get any nutrition from the meal. The gut of the mosquito employs a class of enzymes called proteolytic enzymes to accomplish this. Trypsin, the enzyme being studied in this project, is one such enzyme. It is separated into two categories: early trypsin, which appears shortly after a blood-meal, and late trypsin, which appears later in digestion, and which does most of the work of digestion. The project found evidence that early trypsin activity (that is, the presence of early trypsin in the gut following a meal) was essential to the production of late trypsin later in the experiment. The early trypsin is present in small amounts about two hours after a meal, and the amounts fade out after about eight hours. At about twelve hours after the meal, the late trypsin begins to form. The early try...
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...vel of late trypsin translated in relation to the amount of protein in the meal. Regulation at both the transcriptional and translational levels allows the mosquito to adjust the levels of late trypsin with remarkable flexibility in response to a particular meal. In other words, the mosquito has the ability to assess the quality of its meals and then appropriately synthesize the late trypsin gene. This tight regulation might be important in reserving the synthesis of late trypsin when it isn't needed.
By studying trypsin (early and late) activity in the midgut of the mosquito it is possible that a "mosquito contraceptive" might be developed. A block of trypsin equates to no eggs and no offspring. Therefore, if we find a way to block trypsin production we can stop mosquitoes from reproducing; greatly decreasing or even diminishing these disease carrying insects.
..., Department of Zoology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, Available from Journal of Insect Physiology. (46 (2000) 655–661)Retrieved from http://www.units.muohio.edu/cryolab/publications/documents/IrwinLee00.pdf
In the article “When Mosquitoes Were Killers in America” by Lauren Tarshis, She makes the statement “Yet mosquitoes are far more than a nuisance.” What she means is that mosquitoes aren't a little bug that just sucks a little blood and can be annoying, but instead it uses all that and more. Mosquitoes have killed millions upon millions of people by spreading disease like malaria. An example of how she supports this claim is in the article, she says “ In this way, bite by itchy bite, 212 million people are infected with malaria every year” (Tarshis 13). And that is only a year with bug spray, shots, and all the other things that help stop mosquitoes. So when the U.S. government tried to save people from these murders little insects. So they
Ramona the pest by Beverly Cleary is a silly, exciting and fun book to read. Ramona is excited about the first day of kindergarten. But when she gets there it isn’t what she thought it would be like. Ramona is distracted about another classmate’s hair and can’t wait any longer to touch her hair. Ramona gets in trouble a few times but then gets over it. Her sister Beezus (Beatrice) thinks that she is a pest and everybody in her neighborhood thinks she’s a pest. At first when she starts kindergarten she loves her teacher but when Ramona gets in trouble a few times she’s beginning to thinks her teacher doesn’t like her anymore.
The Asian Tiger Mosquito commonly thrives in residential areas with shade and anything that can hold water. Cans, buckets, flower vases and other water holding containers (like tires), are suitable breeding sites for this invasive species. The male of this species feeds on nectar from plants, whereas the females feed and depend on blood to help them with the development of their eggs. Females may also feed on nectar also....
However, evidence such as fossils is more than enough to lend support and disprove any other theory to the development of species. Examples used by Root-Bernstein and McEachron also provide strong support to evolution. The authors detail how natural selection works in both insects and germs to create organisms better adapted to methods of control. Disease used to run rampant, until the creation of vaccines which led to many diseases becoming extinct. Root-Bernstein and McEachron note that the diseases that have survived to this day have been constantly mutating and evolving to become more resistant to any attempts at suppression. The same can be said for insects that have been consistently exposed to pesticides. The ones that survived the pesticides were able to reproduce and pass along a resistance to their offspring which in turn makes the species more resilient and better suited to their
this is the prepatent period. The worms then reside in the heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels. The worms begin to mate and release microfilaria into the blood stream. When a mosquito bites an infected dog it takes in some of the microfilaria in the blood. After 10 to 30 days there is larvae in the mosquito’s salivary gland which can then be passed on to the next dog the mosquito bites.
One reason I would not be able to survive in the wilderness is because of bugs. Whenever Brian’s plane crashed he was beginning to be eaten up by mosquitoes. Brian’s face was starting to get swollen after all the bugs had attacked him. A quote from this is on page 34, “Mosquitos and some small black flies he had never seen before. All biting, chewing, taking him.” Ever since I was little I have never liked bugs. I never like the thought of how slimy and nasty bugs are. I don’t think I can handle bugs being on
You wouldn’t think the carrier of this disease would come from a little mosquito bite but it does.
The seventh major case of Endangered Specie. Specific species of mosquito play host to one phase of various disease organisms they are the cause of major diseases that lead to human compilation. Most people don’t find it wrong to wipe the entire mosquito species in other to prevent human diseases such as sleeping sick, malaria, and human
1. We hypothesize that the metabolic rate for the cricket and the cockroach will be different when the two animals experience physical stress and temperature changes.
In their article, “The Six-Legged Meat of the Future,” Dicke and Van Huis argue that due to the decline in the supply of meat in America, we should begin to use insects as an “alternate animal protein”
Malaria in humans is caused by four species of protozoa, sophisticated one-celled organisms, that can infect red blood cells. These four species are called Plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium vivax, plasmodium malariae, and plasmodium ovale. The worst cases are caused by the Plasmodium falciparum species, which is also the species with the most resistance to drugs. To contract malaria, a mosquito, but not just any mosquito must bite a human. The only type of mosquito that can infect humans with the malaria virus is the Anopheles mosquito. While there are...
of parasites do not kill the host from feeding, whereas a predator will kill it’
The exocrine function of the pancreas is that it produces enzymes that aids in the digestion of food. There are three important enzymes that are crucial in helping with digestion. The first digestive enzyme is amylase. Amylase function is to break down carbohydrates. The amylase enzyme is made in two places: the cells in the digestive tract that produces saliva and the main one specifically found in the pancreas that are called the pancreatic amylase (Marie, Joanne; Media Demand, “What Are the Functions of Amylase, Protease and Lipase Digestive Enzymes”). The amylase in the pancreas passes through the pancreatic duct to the small intestines. This amylase in the pancreas completes the process of digestion of carbohydrates. Consequently, this leads to the production of glucose that gets absorbed into the bloodstream and gets carried throughout the body. The next enzyme that aids in digestion of food is protease. While amylase breaks down carbohydrates, protease breaks down protein. Protease breaks down protein into the building block form of amino acids. The three main proteases that it produces are: pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin (Marie, Joanne; Media Demand, “What Are the Functions of Amylase, Protease and Lipase Digestive Enzymes”). Pepsin does not occur in the pancreas but it is the catalysis in starting the digestion of proteins. Trypsin and chymotrypsin are the two proteases that occur in
The symptoms include high fever, severe headache, joint and muscle pain and a characteristic rash that resembles measles. In some cases the disease develops into a life-threatening condition called dengue hemorrhagic fever which results in low blood platelet count and bleeding, low blood pressure, enlarged liver, and a shock-like state which may result in death if left untreated13.