Abai, MR

6th International Congress of DipterologyProtozoan parasite Ascogregarina spp.: a fundamental studyin the light of using the parasite for the biological control ofdengue vector mosquitoes.Roychoudhury, S., H. Isawa, K. Hoshino, T. Sasaki, K. Sawabe & M. KobayashiDepartment of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-162-8640, JapanDengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), an important re-emergentdisease, has become a serious health problem recently in terms of bothmortality and morbidity to humans in tropics and subtropics. In view of thenecessity to develop a new vector control strategy, the consideration ofAscogregarina spp, the apicomplexan parasite of dengue vectormosquitoes might sound promising in the near future. In this context acomprehensive bio-molecular study on Ascogregarina taiwanensis andAscogregarina culicis the parasite of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegyptirespectively, have been undertaken to search for the suitability andapplicability of these two protozoan parasite to consider for the biologicalcontrol of dengue vector mosquitoes. The study revealed some interestingbiological properties in the developmental process and the drynessresistance of the oocysts, and their phylogenetic relationship with eachother basing on small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) sequences aswell. In addition, the promoter region of Heat shock protein 70 (HSP 70)gene could be successfully cloned. All the findings of the present studywill serve as baseline information to use the Ascogregarina spp. for thebiological control of the vector mosquitoes of dengue and denguehaemorrhagic fever.Key Words: Ascogregarina taiwanensis, A. culicis, dryness resistance,small subunit ribosomal DNA, heat shock protein 70∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗207