Abstract
The larval stages of malaria vector mosquitoes develop in water pools, feeding mostly on microorganisms and environmental detritus. Richness in the nutrient supply to larvae influences the development and metabolism of larvae and adults. Here, we investigated the effects of larval diet on the development, microbiota content and permissiveness to Plasmodium of Anopheles coluzzii. We tested three fish diets often used to rear mosquitoes in the laboratory, including two pelleted diets, Dr. Clarke’s Pool Pellets and Nishikoi Fish Pellets, and one flaked diet, Tetramin Fish-Flakes. Larvae grow and develop faster and produce bigger adults when feeding on both types of pellets compared with flakes. This correlates with a higher microbiota load in pellet-fed larvae, in agreement with the known positive effect of the microbiota on mosquito development. Larval diet also significantly influences the prevalence and intensity of Plasmodium berghei infection in adults, whereby Nishikoi Fish Pellets-fed larvae develop into adults that are highly permissive to parasites and survive longer after infection. This correlates with a lower amount of Enterobacteriaceae in the midgut microbiota. Together, our results shed light on the influence of larval feeding on mosquito development, microbiota and vector competence; they also provide useful data for mosquito rearing.
Highlights
(b) Average time to pupation of larvae provided with each diet from the first day of feeding. (c) Length of adult wings after larval feeding on the three larval diets
As the success and rate of larval development are critically affected by the amount of food present in the water[28,29], we hypothesised that the diet offered to mosquito larvae had an impact on their growth rate and time to pupation
We show that the diet of Anopheles larvae influences their rate of growth and development, their microbiota and, after reaching adulthood, their permissiveness to Plasmodium infection
Summary
(b) Average time to pupation of larvae provided with each diet from the first day of feeding. (c) Length of adult wings after larval feeding on the three larval diets. (b) Average time to pupation of larvae provided with each diet from the first day of feeding. (c) Length of adult wings after larval feeding on the three larval diets. We hypothesized that such effects of larval nutrition and environment may translate in rearing conditions, and larval diet, affecting the biology of larvae and adult mosquitoes. We analysed the effect of larval diet on the development, the microbiota and the vector competence of A. coluzzii. Focusing on three fish diets commonly used in insectaries, we show that these diets differentially influence the speed of larval development, the size of adult mosquitoes and the larval and adult microbiota. Larval diet significantly impacts prevalence and intensity of infection by P. berghei, likely with a microbiota-dependent mechanism
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