posted on 2024-03-14, 23:03authored byLindsay
E. Guzmán, Anjalee N. Wijetunge, Brendan F. Riske, Brooke B. Massani, Michael A. Riehle, John C. Jewett
Mosquito control methods are vital to curtail the spread
of life-threatening
illnesses, such as dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever. Vector
control technologies must be selective to minimize deleterious effects
on our ecosystem. Successful methods that control mosquito larva populations
utilize the uniquely high alkaline nature of the midgut. Here, we
present novel protected triazabutadienes (pTBD) that are deprotected
under basic conditions of the larval midgut, releasing an aryl diazonium
ion (ADI) that results in protein modification. The probes contain
a bioorthogonal terminal alkyne handle, enabling a selective Cu-click
reaction with an azidofluorophore for quantification by SDS PAGE and
visualization using fluorescence microscopy. A control TBD, unable
to release an ADI, did not label the midgut. We envision our chemical
probes will aid in the development of new selective mosquito control
methods, thus preventing the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses with
minimal impact on other organisms in the ecosystem.