Interplay between the microbiota and life history traits in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti

Sunday, November 13, 2022

10:00 AM – 10:15 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 118

Presenting Author(s)

SS

Sarah M. Short

Assistant Professor
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio

Co-author(s)

DJ

Dominique Joseph

The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio

Co-Author(s)

Dominique Magistrado (she/her/hers)

Graduate Student
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio

Co-author(s)

CD

Camden Dezse

The Ohio State University
Dublin, Ohio
BK

Brendan J. Kelly

Graduate Student
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
NE

Noha El-Dougdoug

The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio

The yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti transmits pathogens that cause hundreds of millions of human infections and tens of thousands of deaths each year. The bacterial microbiota of A. aegypti affects certain life-history traits, such as development, longevity, egg production, and susceptibility to pathogen infection, all of which have the capacity to impact pathogen transmission. We have found significant differences in the microbial community between the crop and the midgut, two tissues within the digestive tract. In our study, crop tissues were much more likely to harbor acetic acid bacteria while midgut tissues were dominated by bacteria from the genus Elizabethkingia. In a separate study, we found that introduction of different species of bacteria during A. aegypti larval development significantly impacted longevity. We also found that survival of mosquitoes with an unmanipulated microbiota was highly variable between replicate experiments but treatment with antibiotics reduced this variability substantially. In addition, antibiotic treatment reduced median time to death compared to non-antibiotic treated individuals. This suggests that the microbiota may impact mosquito longevity, but its effects are variable across time and space.