Zhengwei Zhong, Kun Wang, Ting Zhong, Jingwen Wang
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Ticks ingest over 100 times their body weight in blood. As the primary tissue for blood storage and digestion, the tick midgut's regulation in response to this substantial blood volume remains unclear. Here, we show that blood intake triggers stem cell proliferation and mitochondrial fission in the midgut of Haemaphysalis longicornis. While inhibiting stem cell proliferation does not impact feeding behavior, disruption of mitochondrial fission impairs tick feeding capacity. Mitochondrial fission mediated by dynamin 2 (DNM2) regulates ATP generation, which in turn influences the expression of the tropomyosin-anchoring subunit troponin T (TNT). Knockdown of TNT disrupts muscle fiber assembly, hindering midgut enlargement and contraction, thereby preventing blood ingestion. These findings underscore the indispensable role of musculature in facilitating midgut expansion during feeding in ticks.
期刊介绍:
Cell Reports publishes high-quality research across the life sciences and focuses on new biological insight as its primary criterion for publication. The journal offers three primary article types: Reports, which are shorter single-point articles, research articles, which are longer and provide deeper mechanistic insights, and resources, which highlight significant technical advances or major informational datasets that contribute to biological advances. Reviews covering recent literature in emerging and active fields are also accepted.
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