Polyamines, and effects from reducing their synthesis during egg development in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti.

Development of eggs after a blood meal in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti involves hormonal changes, synthesis of nucleic acids, activation of the digestive enzyme trypsin, and production of the yolk protein vitellogenin. Polyamines have been implicated in growth processes and were here examined for possible involvement during egg development. The data suggest that polyamines are important for normal vitellogenesis in the mosquito. Polyamine levels and activities of ornithine decarboxylase and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, key enzymes in the polyamine pathway, were determined in the fat body for two days after a blood meal. During the time that the macromolecules required for vitellogenesis were being synthesized, polyamine levels increased as did the activities of their rate-limiting enzymes. Administration of suicide inhibitors of ornithine decarboxylase, alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) and alpha-monofluoromethyldehydroornithine methylester (MDME), limited increased polyamine levels and disrupted macromolecular syntheses, particularly during the first twenty-four hours after blood feeding. Specific metabolic processes reduced by DFMO included trypsin activity, and production of RNA, DNA and vitellogenin. MDME had differential effects on transcription of some mRNA species made after an oogenic meal. The level of actin mRNA was not affected by inhibiting polyamine synthesis, but the mRNA levels of vitellogenin, trypsin, and the vitelline membrane protein were decreased. Adding polyamines to a meal containing DFMO or MDME partially reversed the effects of these inhibitors. Increases in spermidine and spermine were associated with these reversals.