Antiviral RNAi Mechanisms to Arboviruses in Mosquitoes: microRNA Profile of Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus from Grenada, West Indies

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a well written and executed review/research hybrid that summarizes the mosquito immune response (focusing on the RNAi pathway) and reports the microRNA profiles of two culicine mosquitoes from Grenada. I am supportive of the manuscript but have some comments:

1. Consider re-writing the beginning of the simple summary. RNAi is a biological process. Yes, it can be used as a tool, but first and foremost it is a biological process.

2. Lines 49-50. Perhaps it would be best to write that arboviral infections are “underreported” instead of “not-well documented”.

3. In section 1.1., more general information is needed on the mosquito circulatory system, and also on how viruses use hemolymph circulation to travel from the midgut to the salivary glands. Along the same lines, figure 1 is incorrect because it has viruses traveling from the midgut to the salivary glands via the ventral abdomen, while they are most likely to move dorsally and enter the heart as they travel to the salivary glands.

4. More careful referencing is needed. For example, lines 104-105 are devoted to hemocytes, yet the references are not on mosquitoes; there is plenty or research (and some reviews) on the biology of mosquito hemocytes. Likewise, lines 105-108 delve into pattern recognition receptors yet the references are not on mosquitoes. References specific to mosquitoes would be better.

5. Lines 220-212. Are Ago3 and Aub not expresses in Drosophila, or are they not encoded in the Drosophila genome?

6. Consider introducing Vago, and how it may link siRNA and JAK/STAT.

7. In tables 2 and 3, define what the numbers in the columns that have the genus names mean.

8. In table 3, I believe the authors mean “fold difference” instead of “fold change”. “Fold difference” is better to use when comparing two species whereas “fold change” works well when comparing different conditions withing a single species.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thanks for your detailed and insightful review. I am attaching the changes made based on your suggestions. Also the document has been reviewed by an editor.

Many Regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors reviewed in their extensive introduction the RNA interference pathway in mosquito and the pathway implication in mosquities antiviral immunity. They further provided the miRNA profile of 2 mosquito species. I believe the manuscript is publishable at its current form. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for your time in reviewing this article. We highly appreciate your positive comments

Many Regards

Maria E Ramos-Nino