MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES AGAINST MANDUCA-SEXTA HEMOCYTES BIND AEDES-AEGYPTI HEMOCYTES - CHARACTERIZATION OF 6 MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES THAT BIND HEMOCYTES FROM BOTH SPECIES

The mechanisms by which hemocytes mediate a mosquito's defense respons e to parasites or pathogens are not well understood. This is due in pa rt to difficulty in collecting intact mosquito hemocytes for experimen ts and to a lack of reagents, such as antibodies. Our objectives were to collect adult Aedes aegypti hemocytes under conditions suitable for immunofluorescence microscopy, and to test whether monoclonal antibod ies, generated against larval Manduca sexta hemocytes, bind adult Ae. aegypti hemocytes, We present immunofluorescence micrographs of M. sex ta and Ae, aegypti hemocytes stained by sir monoclonal antibodies, Two antibodies, MS11 and MS32, immunolocalized to hemocyte nuclei in both species. On Western blots, these antibodies generate one signal at si milar to 40 kDa and four others between 10 and 25 kDa, Immunofluoresce nce staining patterns of the other four antibodies were more complex, That these antibodies bind hemocytes from both species suggests signif icant molecular similarities exist between hemocytes from evolutionari ly divergent species.