Mosquito transmitted diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, and encephalitis claim millions of lives worldwide each year. My laboratory is using modern genomics and bioinformatics tools to study the basic genetics and physiology of mosquitoes with the long-term goal of reducing the burden of vector-borne infectious diseases. My research program includes three areas.

We are interested in mosquito transposable elements (TEs), which are a group of mobile genetic elements that are able to replicate and spread in the genome. Our objectives are to understand the fundamental biology, the genomic context, and evolutionary impact of TEs as well as to explore the applications of TEs as molecular tools to manipulate mosquito genomes for the purpose of interrupting transmission of pathogens. Secondly, we are conducting comparative genomics research using a range of mosquitoes to provide high-resolution identification of regulatory elements, uncover gene expansions/loss/rearrangements, and reveal correlation between these genetic changes and biological adaptations.

Finally, we have recently identified a number of mosquito-specific microRNAs (miRNAs), which are a novel class of gene modulating molecules. miRNAs are ~22 nucleotide long non-coding RNAs that modulate the expression of cellular genes by binding to cognate mRNAs for cleavage or translational repression. miRNAs are widely distributed in metazoans and plants. Many miRNAs exhibit finely controlled spatio-temporal expression profiles. Several of these have been shown to be key regulatory molecules during embryonic development, stem cell division, and cell death. miRNAs are also implicated in cancer and control of viral infection. Several mosquito miRNAs display temporal and tissue-specific expression. We areinvestigating the functions of some of these miRNAs.

Tribolium genome sequencing consortium. 2008. The first genome sequence of a beetle, Tribolium castaneum, a model for insect development and pest biology. Nature 452, 949-955.

Mead, E.A. and Tu, Z. 2008. Cloning, characterization and expression of microRNAs from the Asian malaria mosquito, Anopheles stephensi. BMC Genomics 9, 244

Miller, R. and Tu, Z. 2008. Odorant receptor C-terminal motifs in divergent insect species. J. Insect Science, 8, 48.

Sengul, M.S. and Tu, Z. 2008. Characterization and expression of the odorant-binding protein 7 gene in Anopheles stephensi and comparative analysis among five mosquito species. Insect Mol. Biol., in press.

Santolamazza, F., Mancini, E., Simard, F., Qi, Y., Tu, Z. and Della Torre, A. 2008. Insertion polymorphisms of SINE200 retrotransposons within speciation islands of Anopheles gambiae molecular forms. Malar J. 2008 7, 163.

Biedler J., Shao H., and Tu, Z. 2007. Evolution and horizontal transfer of a DD37E DNA transposon in mosquitoes. Genetics 177, 2553-2558

Biedler, J. and Tu, Z. 2007. The Juan non-LTR retrotransposon in mosquitoes: genomic impact, vertical transmission and indications of recent and widespread activity. BMC Evol. Biol. 7, 112 (9 print pages).

Coy, M. and Tu, Z. 2007. Genomic and evolutionary analyses of Tango transposons in Aedes aegypti , Anopheles gambiae and other mosquito species. Insect Mol. Biol. 16, 411-421.

Nene, V., Wortman, J.R., Lawson, D., Haas, B., Kodira, C., Tu, Z. et al. 2007. Genome sequence of Aedes aegypti, a major arbovirus vector. Science 316, 1718-1723.

Holt, R. et al. 2002. The genome sequence of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Science 298, 129-149.