Functional characterization and expression analysis of the myoinhibiting peptide receptor in the chagas disease vector Rhodnius prolixus

What gets your oviducts fluttering? Well, we don’t have oviducts, but if we had oviducts like the chagas disease vector Rhodnius polixus, than the answer would be clearer because of recent results out of the Lange and Orchard labs. Former PhD/PDF Jean-Paul Paluzzi and current PhD student Laura Sedra (Lange and Orchard Labs) recently published “Functional characterization and expression analysis of the myoinhibiting peptide receptor in the chagas disease vector Rhodnius prolixus” in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. In this paper, they clone and characterize the myoinhibiting peptide (MIP) receptor in the blood-sucking bug, R. prolixus. This family of peptides is known to inhibit visceral muscle contraction. Interestingly, members of this peptide family in Rhodnius have an unusual peptide sequence compared to other insects. This paper confirms the myoinhibitory role of MIPs in Rhodnius and uses a functional receptor assay and a muscle contraction assay to show that the MIP inhibits oviduct muscle contractions. Thus, this study shows the structural requirements of the peptides needed to retain full biological activity. Congrats on this exciting discovery!