Summary: RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access
An insight into the sialome of Glossina
morsitans morsitans
Juliana Alves-Silva1,2
, José MC Ribeiro3*
, Jan Van Den Abbeele4
, Geoffrey Attardo5
, Zhengrong Hao5
, Lee R Haines1
,
Marcelo B Soares6
, Matthew Berriman7
, Serap Aksoy5
, Michael J Lehane1
Abstract
Background: Blood feeding evolved independently in worms, arthropods and mammals. Among the adaptations
to this peculiar diet, these animals developed an armament of salivary molecules that disarm their host's anti-
bleeding defenses (hemostasis), inflammatory and immune reactions. Recent sialotranscriptome analyses (from the
Greek sialo = saliva) of blood feeding insects and ticks have revealed that the saliva contains hundreds of
polypeptides, many unique to their genus or family. Adult tsetse flies feed exclusively on vertebrate blood and are

Source: Aksoy, Serap - School of Public Health, Yale University

Collections: Biology and Medicine