... improve a tongue's grip: the spikes on a penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus tongue can be as large as fingernails, and help the penguin swallow fish. The saliva coating on the tongue, a non-Newtonian biofluid, can either lubricate or adhere to food. Frog saliva is 175 times more viscous than human saliva...

...) homologous to triabin, an inhibitor of thrombin in Triatoma pallidipennis saliva. In the present study, a recombinant protein of Td60, designated dimiconin, was expressed in Escherichia coli and its activity was characterized. The resulting protein inhibited the intrinsic but not extrinsic blood coagulation...

... bioactive lipid that is enzymatically generated by phospholipase A 2 (PLA 2 ). Previously, we showed that LPC is present in the saliva of the blood-sucking hemipteran Rhodnius prolixus and modulates cell-signaling pathways involved in vascular biology, which aids blood feeding. Here, we show that the saliva...

...Hirotomo Kato; Ryan C. Jochim; Phillip G. Lawyer; Jesus G. Valenzuela SUMMARY Two transcripts coding for an adenosine deaminase (ADA) were identified by sequencing a Phlebotomus duboscqi salivary gland cDNA library. Adenosine deaminase was previously reported in the saliva of the sand fly Lutzomyia...

... products are also highly represented in the library. EST matching transporter proteins were found for several V-type ATPase subunits,Na + /K + -ATPases, Ca 2+ -ATPases and several families of solute carriers. V-type ATPases have been implicated in the secretion of saliva in Diptera ( Zimmermann et al...

... 2004 © The Company of Biologists Limited 2004 2004 salivary gland transcript salivary protein New World sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis saliva The New World sand fly, Lutzomyia longipalpis , is an important vector of Leishmania chagasi , causal agent of the visceral form...

...José M. C. Ribeiro; Ivo M. B. Francischetti SUMMARY A phospholipase C activity specific for platelet-activating factor (PAF), named PAF phosphorylcholine hydrolase, was found in the salivary glands and saliva of the human-feeding mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus . The enzymatic activity...

... the AMP deaminase activity is less than 10% of the ADA activity. Evidence for secretion of ADA during blood feeding by Aedes aegypti includes the presence of ADA activity in warm solutions probed through a membrane by mosquitoes and in serotonin-induced saliva and a statistically significant reduction...

... with that of R. prolixus nitrophorin, the only other nitrophorin known in insect saliva. Because C. lectularius and R. prolixus belong to two different families of Hemiptera that evolved independently to blood feeding, a case is made for the convergent evolution of these two insect nitrophorins. * e...

... that can be measured using commercial apparatus. * e-mail: [email protected] 14 3 1997 © 1997 The Company of Biologists Ltd. 1997 water balance water vapour uptake saliva Amblyomma variegatum tick Water vapour uptake from an unsaturated atmosphere occurs...

... of Biologists Limited 1995 saliva salivary glands NO synthetase nitric oxide diaphorase ultrastructure Rhodnius prolixus triatomine The blood-sucking bug Rhodnius prolixus contains a salivary nitrovasodilator ( Ribeiro et al . 1990 ) that, in concert with other activities, helps...

... saliva than did control mosquitoes. These samples of saliva also contained significantly lower concentrations of apyrase, an enzyme important in blood-feeding. Injection of 5-HT into both AMTP-treated and control mosquitoes elicited significant increases in the volume of secreted saliva and/or its...

... 1993 by Company of Biologists 1993 saliva feeding hematophagy vasodilator aorta Anopheles albimanus When attempting to feed, blood-sucking arthropods injure their hosts and thus face a complex vertebrate defense system against blood loss, the hemostatic response. Platelet...

...José M. C. Ribeiro ABSTRACT Salivary gland homogenates and oil-induced saliva of the mosquito Aedes aegypti dilate the rabbit aortic ring and contract the guinea pig ileum. The vasodilatory activity is endothelium-dependent, heat-stable, sensitive to both trypsin and chymotrypsin treatments...

...J. M. C. Ribeiro; P. A. Rossignol; A. Spielman ABSTRACT In order to ascribe a blood feeding function to the saliva of mosquitoes, we determined whether this secretion may limit the initial probing phase of biting behaviour. The probing of hosts was indeed prolonged when the salivary ducts were...