African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 3 (8), pp. 405-408, August 2004   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2004 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Role of sialic acids in the midguts of Trypanosoma congolense infected Culex pipense pipiense mosquitoes

A. B. Sallau¹*, A. J. Nok¹, I. S. Ndams² and E. O. Balogun¹

 ¹Department of Biochemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

²Department of Biological Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: bsallau@yahoo.com.

Accepted July 13, 2004

Free and total sialic acid concentrations were determined in the midgut extract of Culex pipiense pipiense mosquitoes infected with Trypanosoma congolense.  The mean total sialic acid concentrations were found to be 1.5 to 2 fold higher than the mean free sialic acid concentrations in the midgut extracts of all the groups of the T. congolense infected C.p. pipiense. Infusion of 10 mg/ml galactose and 10 mg/ml lactose did not change the pattern of this difference but resulted to 1.3 to 1.4 fold decrease in the total sialic acid concentration. The relevance of these findings to the role of sialic acids in the midgut of T. congolense infected C.p. pipiense mosquitoes is discussed in this paper.

Key words: Trypanosoma congolense, Culex pipiense pipiense, sialic acid, midgut.