Silencing of carbonic anhydrase in an Anopheles gambiae larval cell line, Ag55

RNAi has been used extensively to down-regulate proteins in adult mosquitoes; however, it is not well adapted for use in larvae. Larval mosquitoes can generate a pH as high as 10.5 in the anterior region of their midgut. The mechanisms responsible for the generation and maintenance of this pH are not entirely understood, but members of the carbonic anhydrase (CA) family of enzymes have been implicated. Here we use an An. gambiae larval cell line, Ag55 cells, to demonstrate that application of full-length double-stranded RNA specific to one CA, AgCA9, is sufficient to silence AgCA9 mRNA and down-regulate the corresponding protein. This is a first step towards determining the role(s) of these enzymes in pH regulation.