Abstract
The microbiota in mosquito breeding waters can affect ovipositing mosquitoes, have effects on larval development, and can modify adult mosquito-gut bacterial composition. This, in turn, can affect transmission of human pathogens such as malaria parasites. Here, we explore the microbiota of four breeding sites for Anopheles darlingi, the most important malaria vector in Latin America. The sites are located in Manaus in the Amazon basin in Brazil, an area of active malaria transmission. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing by MiSeq, we found that all sites were dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and that 94% of the total number of reads belonged to 36 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified in all sites. Of these, the most common OTUs belonged to Escherichia/Shigella, Staphylococcus, and Pseudomonas. Of the remaining 6% of the reads, the OTUs found to differentiate between the four sites belonged to the orders Burkholderiales, Actinomycetales, and Clostridiales. We conclude that An. darlingi can develop in breeding waters with different surface-water bacteria, but that the common microbiota found in all breeding sites might indicate or contribute to a suitable habitat for this important malaria vector.
Highlights
The Amazon tropical rainforest contains ~ 25% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity [1]
After sequencing the hypervariable V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and bioinformatics processing of the water samples from four An. darlingi breeding sites in Manaus, a total of 416,420 reads were left in 154 operational taxonomic units (OTUs)
We found that 94% of the total number of reads belonged to 36 OTUs identified in all sites and that Proteobacteria and Firmicutes dominated in all sites, at lower taxonomic levels the bacterial composition diverged between sites
Summary
The Amazon tropical rainforest contains ~ 25% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity [1]. Example where the microbiota plays an important role is in the development of mosquito larvae because mosquito larvae feed on microorganisms and in particular on bacteria in their breeding water [8, 9]. Several studies have even shown that bacteria are indispensable for mosquito development. As early as 1935, Rozeboom [10] showed that Aedes aegypti could not develop in bacteria-filtered water. Bacteria have been shown to both attract [13, 14] and repel [15] gravid mosquitoes to potential breeding sites, suggesting they direct ovipositing females. Besides affecting oviposition and development of larvae, the bacteria in the breeding water might impact the microbiota of the adult mosquitoes, as adult mosquitoes have been shown to contain gut bacteria found in their breeding water [12, 16, 17]. Genetic modification of mosquito gut bacteria has been suggested as a tool to prevent malaria transmission by producing antiparasitic molecules in the mosquito gut [20]
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