Xiaoming Wang, Tong Liu, Yang Wu, Daibin Zhong, Guofa Zhou, Xinghua Su, Jiabao Xu, Charity F. Sotero, Adnan A. Sadruddin, Kun Wu*, Xiao-Guang Chen*, Guiyun Yan*
ABSTRACT
Interactions between bacterial microbiota and mosquitoes play an important role in mosquitoes’ capacity to transmit pathogens. However, microbiota assemblages within mosquitoes and the impact of microbiota in environments on mosquito development and survival remain unclear. This study examined microbiota assemblages and the effects of aquatic environment microbiota on the larval development of the Aedes albopictus mosquito, an important dengue virus vector. Life table studies have found that reducing bacterial load in natural aquatic habitats through water filtering and treatment with antibiotics significantly reduced the larva-to-adult emergence rate. This finding was consistent in two types of larval habitats examined-discarded tires and flowerpots, suggesting that bacteria play a crucial role in larval develop ment. Pyrosequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was used to determine the diversity of bacterial communities in larval habitats and the resulting numbers of mosquitoes under both laboratory and field conditions. The microbiota profiling iden tified common shared bacteria among samples from different years; further studies are needed to determine whether these bacteria represent a core microbiota. The highest microbiota diversity was found in aquatic habitats, followed by mosquito lar vae, and the lowest in adult mosquitoes. Mosquito larvae ingested their bacterial microbiota and nutrients from aquatic habitats of high microbiota diversity. Taken together, the results support the observation that Ae. albopictus larvae are able to utilize diverse bacteria from aquatic habitats and that live bacteria from aquatic habi tats play an important role in larval mosquito development and survival. These find ings provide new insights into bacteria’s role in mosquito larval ecology.
Molecular Ecology. 2018; 27: 2972 - 2985.
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14732
