Laboratory colonization by Dirofilaria immitis alters the microbiome of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Journal Article · Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Parasites & Vectors

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04218-8· OSTI ID:1799589

Adegoke, Abdulsalam ^[1]; Neff, Erik ^[2]; Geary, Amie ^[3]; Husser, Montana Ciara ^[3]; Wilson, Kevin ^[3]; Norris, Shawn Michael ^[3]; Dharmarajan, Guha ^[4]; Karim, Shahid ^[3]

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1. Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS (United States). School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences. Center for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences; OSTI
2. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Ecology Lab. (SREL); Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
3. Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS (United States). School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences. Center for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences
4. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Ecology Lab. (SREL)

Background: The ability of blood-feeding arthropods to successfully acquire and transmit pathogens of medical and veterinary importance has been shown to be interfered with, or enhanced by, the arthropod’s native microbiome. Mosquitoes transmit viruses, protozoan and filarial nematodes, the majority of which contribute to the 17% of infectious disease cases worldwide. Diroflaria immitis, a mosquito-transmitted filarial nematodes of dogs and cats, is vectored by several mosquito species including Aedes aegypti. Methods: In this study, we investigated the impact of D. immitis colonization on the microbiome of laboratory reared female Ae. aegypti. Metagenomic analysis of the V3–V4 variable region of the microbial 16S RNA gene was used for identification of the microbial differences down to species level. Results: We generated a total of 1068 OTUs representing 16 phyla, 181 genera and 271 bacterial species. Overall, in order of abundance, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were the most represented phylum with D. immitis-infected mosquitoes having more of Proteobacteria (71%) than uninfected mosquitoes (56.9%). An interesting finding in this study is the detection of Klebsiella oxytoca in relatively similar abundance in infected and uninfected mosquitoes, suggesting a possible endosymbiotic relationship, and has been previously shown to indirectly compete for nutrients with fungi on domestic housefly eggs and larvae. While D. immitis colonization has no effect on the overall species richness, we identified significant differences in the composition of selected bacterial genera and phyla between the two groups. We also reported distinct compositional and phylogenetic differences in the individual bacterial species when commonly identified bacteria were compared. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to understand the impact of a filarial infection on the microbiome of its mosquito vector. Further studies are required to identify bacteria species that could play an important role in the mosquito biology. While the microbiome composition of Ae. aegypti mosquito have been previously reported, our study shows that in an effort to establish itself, a filarial nematode modifies and alters the overall microbial diversity within its mosquito host.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• Grant/Contract Number: EM0004391
• OSTI ID: 1799589
• Journal Information: Parasites & Vectors, Journal Name: Parasites & Vectors Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 1756-3305
• Publisher: BioMed Central
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Aedes aegypti
Diroflaria immitis
Dog heartworm
Metagenome
Microbiome
Mosquitoes
Parasitology
Tropical Medicine