New Mexico State University View Institution's Website 3 articles published in JoVE Biology Fat Body Organ Culture System in Aedes Aegypti, a Vector of Zika Virus Hae-Na Chung1, Stacy D. Rodriguez1, Victoria K. Carpenter2, Julia Vulcan1, C. Donovan Bailey1, Madhugiri Nageswara-Rao1, Yiyi Li3, Geoffrey M. Attardo4, Immo A. Hansen1,5 1Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, 2Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University, 3Department of Computer Sciences, New Mexico State University, 4Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, 5Institute of Applied Biosciences, New Mexico State University The fat body is the central metabolic organ in insects. We present a live organ culture system that enables the user to study the responses of isolated fat body tissue to various stimuli. Biology Depletion of Ribosomal RNA for Mosquito Gut Metagenomic RNA-seq Phanidhar Kukutla1, Matthew Steritz1, Jiannong Xu1 1Department of Biology, New Mexico State University A ribosomal RNA (rRNA) depletion protocol was developed to enrich messenger RNA (mRNA) for RNA-seq of the mosquito gut metatranscriptome. Sample specific rRNA probes, which were used to remove rRNA via subtraction, were created from the mosquito and its gut microbes. Performance of the protocol can result in the removal of approximately 90-99% of rRNA. Biology RNAi-mediated Gene Knockdown and In Vivo Diuresis Assay in Adult Female Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes Lisa L. Drake1, David P. Price2, Sarah E. Aguirre1, Immo A. Hansen1 1Biology Department, New Mexico State University, 2Molecular Biology Department, New Mexico State University In this protocol we combine RNAi-mediated gene silencing with an in vivo diuresis assay to study the effects knockdown of genes of interest has on mosquito fluid excretion.