The Effect of Quorum Sensing by Staphylococcus epidermis on Blood Meal Choice in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti

Abstract

Female mosquitoes utilize volatile organic compounds (VOCs) elicited from the host in order to determine host preference. These VOCs include metabolites produced directly by the host or altered by the skin microflora and from products of bacterial quorum sensing. This research examined what bacterial density is required for quorum sensing to elicit enough VOCs that can be utilized for host selection in mosquitoes. The treehole mosquito, Aedes aegypti was used in a series of blood meal assays where females were given the choice of feeding on an artificial membrane with varying concentrations of Staphylococcus epidermis vs a control where only the medium was present on the artificial membrane. The number of females on the experimental or control artificial membranes were counted and recorded every minute. Blood meal preference was determined by finding the difference between the # of females on the experimental membrane vs. control membrane and then dividing by the total number of females observed. Results indicate that there is a positive correlation between bacterial concentration and mosquito blood meal preference. Female mosquitoes showed a high preference for blood meals where bacterial concentrations were greater than 106 CFU's. Since quorum sensing is utilized by bacteria typically at higher densities only, this research seems to indicate that VOCs produced through quorum sensing are utilized by mosquitoes in host selection. This research also supports differences among human host preferences in mosquitoes and may help to find alternatives to the use of insect‐repellents such as DEET.Support or Funding InformationAmerican Association of Anatomists (AAA)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.