Aedes albopictus is an invasive mosquito that can be found in all continents. This species, considered as secondary vector of Dengue virus, has recently been suggested to play a role in the transmission of Zika virus in several countries bordering Brazil. In this study, We surveyed the distribution, abundance and main micro habitats of Ae. albopictus in Koera. The main bloodmeal source of this mosquito was mammals (71%) followed by birds (26%), and fish (1%). In flavivius detection, no virus was detected in this mosquito, but a total of six Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) positive pools were detected from Culex orientalis and Culex pipiens. To investigate the possibility of using Wolbachia, as one of biological control strategy, we investigated the distribution of Wolbachia infection in Ae. albopicutus according to geographical distribution. Over 99% of the collected this mosquitoes harbored Wolbachia.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascades play critical roles in various cellular events including abiotic/biotic stress responses, innate immunity, hormone signaling and cell specificity in plants. The MAPK-mediated stress and ethylene signaling are recently known to be involved in nitogen-fixing symbiotic interactions; however, the biological role of MAPK for nodule development in legume plants is largely unknown. We here elucidated that MtMKK5-MtMPK3/6 cascade negatively regulate the nitrogen fixing nodule formation in Medicago truncatula. MtMKK5, an ortholog of SIMKK, overexpression significantly reduces the nodule formation in M. truncatula roots. MtMKK5 directly activates MtMPK3/6 by phosphorylation on the TEY motif within the activation loop in the cytoplasm, which might link to EFD as a negative regulator for nodule formation. EFD has a putative MAPK phosphorylation Thr residue and could be a target of the activated MtMPK3/6 in the nucleus. Consistently, a MAPK specific inhibitor U0126 enhances nodule formation and confers similar nodule phenotypes to the efd-1 mutant such as lower proliferation and differentiation to symbiotic tissues. Our works thus reveal a key negative signaling module mediated by MtMKK5-MtMPK3/6-EFD for symbiotic nitrogen fixing nodule organogenesis.