Identification and Characterization of a cDNA Clone Encoding the Heat Shock Protein (Hsp60) from the Biting Midge, Culicoides variipennis sonorensis Wirth and Jones

A cDNA expression library constructed from Culicoides variipennis sonorensis was screened using an antibody specific for Hsp60 of Heliothis virescens. A single clone encoding the complete heat shock protein (Hsp60) of C. variipennis was identified and its 2400-bp insert was sequenced. The encoded 62-kDa protein contains 581 amino acids and includes a 26amino acid putative mitochondrial targeting sequence at its N terminus and a GGM motif at its carboxyl terminus. Deduced amino acid sequences are highly similar (67–78%) to Hsp60 of other species, including the fruit fly, the house mouse, the Norwegian rat, the Chinese hamster, the human, a nematode, and the tobacco budworm moth. This is the initial isolation of a coding sequence for a stress-induced protein in C. variipennis.