Blood-feeding is a trait that has evolved multiple times within flies (Diptera). The goal of this study is to compare gene expression between two blood-feeding flies, the blow-fly Protocalliphora sailia and mosquitos to identify conserved genes related to blood-feeding. This is interesting because these two flies have independently evolved the blood-feeding trait and feed at different stages in their life cycles. Protocalliphora lay their eggs in birds’ nests and the larvae suck the blood from nestlings to gain nutrients, while only adult female mosquitoes feed on blood. Our lab recently completed sequencing the Protocalliphora transcriptome at multiple life history stages. For this study we were interested in genes that were up-regulated during blood-feeding life stages and down-regulated during non-blood feeding stages. We then identified and collected publicly available data sets of mosquitos that focused on differential expression based on age or sex in the mosquito species Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti. Software package BLAST was used to identify genes that are differentially expressed between blood feeding and non-blood feeding stages in both Protocalliphora and in mosquitos. Those genes that are up-regulated in both flies at their different blood-feeding stage in their life cycle will be studied.
