Throughout diapause in mosquitoes, stress resistance and subsequent prolonged lifespan are a few important features of diapause that are crucial for overwintering success. In the mosquito Culex pipiens, we suggest that oxidoreductin-like protein is involved with these diapause characteristics for overwintering survival. Expression of oxidor was more than two-fold higher in early stage diapausing females compared to their non-diapausing counterparts. Suppression of the gene that encodes oxidoreductin-like protein by RNAi significantly increased the proportion of degenerating follicles in early-stage adult diapausing females. Inhibition of oxidor also significantly reduced the survivability of diapausing females which indicates that this protein plays a key role in protecting multiple tissues during early diapause.
Keywords: Culex pipiens; Cx. pipiens; Diapause; Dsi-RNA; Mosquito; Oxidative stress; Oxidoreductin-like protein; RNAi; qRT-PCR.
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