Differences in diel activity patterns across Aedes species

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

9:12 AM – 9:24 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 220

Presenting Author(s)

Nicole Wynne

Graduate Student
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia

Co-Author(s)

CV

Clément Vinauger

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia
SD

Shajaeza Diggs

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia

By transmitting pathogens while blood feeding, female mosquitoes are responsible for hundreds of thousands of human deaths each year. But mosquitoes don’t spend their entire day looking for us and biting us. Instead, each species predominantly bites at a specific moment of the day, which corresponds to times when their flight activity is the highest and they are most sensitive and responsive to host cues. Understanding mosquitoes' biological rhythms and the daily modulation of their interactions with hosts is thus crucial for better understanding patterns of disease transmission and, eventually, inventing new ways to prevent mosquito bites. However, while biological rhythms have been well characterized in handful of model species in the Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex genera, how behavioral rhythms vary between species of the same genus, or populations of the same species, that differ in their host preference and habitat type has been largely overlooked. Here, we compared the urban and highly anthropophilic Aedes aegypti mosquito with two populations of Aedes japonicus which are found in rural areas and prefer smaller mammals. Contrasting with previous reports, our findings show that Ae. japonicus females are nocturnal, with a peak in spontaneous locomotor activity during the first half of the night. In a series of behavioral experiments we further characterized the endogenous nature of these rhythms and analyzed the effects of environmental factors and host activity on the chronobiology activity patterns. Results will be discussed in the context of adaptations to feeding on specific hosts.