Abstract
Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus develop in the same aquatic sites where they encounter microorganisms that influence their life history and capacity to transmit human arboviruses. Some bacteria such as Wolbachia are currently being considered for the control of Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika. Yet little is known about the dynamics and diversity of Aedes-associated bacteria, including larval habitat features that shape their tempo-spatial distribution. We applied large-scale 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to 960 adults and larvae of both Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes from 59 sampling sites widely distributed across nine provinces of Panama. We find both species share a limited, yet highly variable core microbiota, reflecting high stochasticity within their oviposition habitats. Despite sharing a large proportion of microbiota, Ae. aegypti harbours higher bacterial diversity than Ae. albopictus, primarily due to rarer bacterial groups at the larval stage. We find significant differences between the bacterial communities of larvae and adult mosquitoes, and among samples from metal and ceramic containers. However, we find little support for geography, water temperature and pH as predictors of bacterial associates. We report a low incidence of natural Wolbachia infection for both Aedes and its geographical distribution. This baseline information provides a foundation for studies on the functions and interactions of Aedes-associated bacteria with consequences for bio-control within Panama.
Highlights
The arboviral disease vectors of Dengue (DENV) and chikungunya (CHIKV) viruses, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are invasive mosquitoes that utilise the same habitats and hosts as they expand and naturalise
The effective spread of introduced Wolbachia among natural populations relies on a gene drive system that can be impacted by the interaction of different Wolbachia strains and bacterial community members, producing variable fitness consequences[25,26]
Preliminary sequencing of seven pools of six mosquitoes each captured a comparable level of bacterial diversity to individual component mosquitoes (Mann Whitney U of Faith’s Phylogenetic Diversity values, W = 58, P > 0.05), informing our decision to process a larger number of individuals by pooling mosquitoes of the same species from the same oviposition site
Summary
The arboviral disease vectors of Dengue (DENV) and chikungunya (CHIKV) viruses, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are invasive mosquitoes that utilise the same habitats and hosts as they expand and naturalise. Efforts to characterise the bacterial community of wild mosquitoes have been limited to over a small geographic scale[1,2,25,28,29,30,31,32,33] This includes very little related work on the arboviral disease vectors Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, despite their considerable impact on public health[34,35,36]. Since the geographical distribution of Aedes species (e.g., co-existence) has not been fully characterised across Panama, our intention is not to test whether bacteria are shared across the same oviposition sites, but rather we use country-wide data i) to describe the intra- and inter-species microbial communities associated with larval and adult stages of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, and ii) to determine whether features of larval habitats including geographic location, type of container material and physical variables of the water (pH and temperature) influence the microbiota of these mosquitoes. In addition to its ecological and epidemiological consequences, characterisation of the bacterial community of Aedes mosquitoes would provide valuable baseline information for trials of vector population control with genetically-engineered bacteria
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
