An unusual myosuppressin from the blood-feeding bug Rhodnius prolixus

We close out July by celebrating a second paper by DoHee Lee (left photo), Rosa Da Silva (center photo) and a former undergraduate student, Hamza Taufique, all from the Lange Lab.

Their paper was published in The Journal of Experimental Biology. In this article they describe an unusual myosuppressin from the medically important blood sucking Kissing Bug (right photo). The myosuppressin is expressed in the central nervous system and posterior midgut of the bug but the amino acid sequence is highly diverged from other insects. Despite a unique amino acid sequence, this myosuppressin still appears to play an important role in inhibiting the frequency and reducing the amplitude of contractions in the gut and heart.

Congratulations on this productive line of research!

Read this paper