Abstract
Adult male and female mosquitoes consume sugar as floral and extrafloral nectar. Earlier work demonstrated that mosquito populations and their vector potential are dependent upon the availability of sugar sources. Thus, a novel method of vector control may involve targeting sugar-feeding mosquitoes. Multiple human-safe sugar substitutes are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are readily available. However, plant-based sugar substitutes such as stevia (erythritol) have been shown to affect lifespan in other flies. Therefore, the current study was carried out to test the potential of commercially available sugar substitutes to adversely affect the survival, fecundity, and metabolism of adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Of the four sugar substitutes tested, erythritol (Stevia), sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (Equal), and saccharin (Sweet’N Low), only erythritol negatively affected mosquito longevity and fecundity. The effect on fecundity was probably due in part to a corresponding decrease in glycogen and lipid levels over time in mosquitoes fed on erythritol. Comparative mosquito head transcriptomes indicated upregulation of a gene in the mannose biosynthesis pathway in females fed on erythritol, suggesting that N-linked glycosylation might be responsible for the negative impact of erythritol feeding in mosquitoes. Mosquitoes preferred sucrose when a choice was given but were not averse to erythritol. Our results suggest the possibility of using erythritol alone or in combination with sucrose as a component of attractive toxic sugar baits for a human-safe approach for mosquito control.
Highlights
Adult male and female mosquitoes consume sugar as floral and extrafloral nectar
Both males and females fed on erythritol had a significantly shorter lifespan compared to sucrose-fed and water only individuals (Fig. 1a,b)
There was no significant difference in mortality between the sucrose, saccharin, and sucralose treatments in either males or females
Summary
Adult male and female mosquitoes consume sugar as floral and extrafloral nectar. Earlier work demonstrated that mosquito populations and their vector potential are dependent upon the availability of sugar sources. The current study was carried out to test the potential of commercially available sugar substitutes to adversely affect the survival, fecundity, and metabolism of adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Our results suggest the possibility of using erythritol alone or in combination with sucrose as a component of attractive toxic sugar baits for a human-safe approach for mosquito control. Attractive-toxic sugar baits (ATSB) are promoted as one of the new vector control paradigms because this method kills both female and male mosquitoes questing for essential sugar sources in the outdoor environment[10,11]. Considering the importance of sugar feeding in mosquitoes and its potential to be used in a human- and environmentally-safe approach for their control, the current study was designed to analyze the effects of four major, commercially available, sugar substitutes on mosquito physiology
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