{"id":320327,"date":"2020-01-08T17:19:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T20:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=320327"},"modified":"2020-01-08T17:19:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T20:19:26","slug":"the-glowing-mosquito-from-vale-do-ribeira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-glowing-mosquito-from-vale-do-ribeira\/","title":{"rendered":"The glowing mosquito from Vale do Ribeira"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_320328\" style=\"max-width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/012-017_NOTAS_283-3-800px.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-320328 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/012-017_NOTAS_283-3-800px.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/012-017_NOTAS_283-3-800px.jpg 800w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/012-017_NOTAS_283-3-800px-250x372.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/012-017_NOTAS_283-3-800px-700x1042.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/012-017_NOTAS_283-3-800px-120x179.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Henrique Domingos\/IPBio, Brasil<\/span><\/a> Mosquito larva <em>Neoceroplatus betaryiensis<\/em> emits blue light<span class=\"media-credits\">Henrique Domingos\/IPBio, Brasil<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>In 2017, Grant Johnson, an American volunteer working at the Biodiversity Research Institute (IPBio) in Vale do Ribeira, S\u00e3o Paulo State, found a larva emitting a blue light among fallen logs. IPBio staff working at Vale do Ribeira State Tourist Park (PETAR), known for its caves and unique biodiversity, sent photos to chemist Cassius Stevani, from the Institute of Chemistry at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (IQ-USP). A specialist in bioluminescent fungi and a frequent visitor to PETAR, he contacted entomologists and identified the specimen as a mosquito larva. One of the colleagues he consulted was biochemist Vadim Viviani, from the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar). Viviani studies glowing animals, including <em>Orfelia fultoni<\/em>, an American mosquito species. The researchers tested extracts from both species\u2014<em>O. fultoni <\/em>\u00a0and the newly described <em>Neoceroplatus betaryiensis<\/em>\u2014and were able to recreate the light emission <em>in vitro<\/em> (<em>Scientific Reports<\/em>, August 5). &#8220;Both species have the same luciferin and luciferase,&#8221; says Stevani, referring to the enzyme and substrate responsible for the chemical reaction that generates light. Stevani suggests that it may be possible to genetically engineer the larvae of disease-causing mosquitoes such as <em>Aedes aegypti<\/em> to make them glow. &#8220;This could offer a way of easily identifying them and preventing disease,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may be possible to genetically engineer the larvae of disease-causing mosquitoes such as <em>Aedes aegypti<\/em> to make them glow","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[211,259,237],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-320327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-biochemistry","tag-chemistry","tag-genetics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320327"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320335,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320327\/revisions\/320335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320327"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=320327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}