Differences in the intestinal microbiota between insecticide‐resistant and ‐sensitive Aedes albopictus based on full‐length 16S rRNA sequencing

Abstract

Aedes albopictus is an important medical arthropod and the main vector of viruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. Dengue fever remains prevalent and outbreaks often occur in subtropical and temperate countries with around 390 million people being infected worldwide annually (Bhatt et al., 2013). To date, effective and safe vaccines have not been developed for the prevention and control of mosquito-borne viruses and the control of such viruses relies mainly on the suppression of mosquito vectors and chemical methods. Pyrethroid insecticides have been widely used for mosquito control owing to their insecticide efficacy and non-toxicity in mammals. However, the overuse and abuse of these insecticides have resulted in widespread resistance, thereby defeating the very purpose of vector prevention and mosquito control.Previous studies have indicated that symbiotic bacteria in insects, particularly in the gut, endow the host with improved adaptability to the environment (Tsuchida et al., 2014), enhanced immunity against external pathogenic microorganisms, and increased detoxification rates (Oliver et al., 2003;Vorburger & Rouchet, 2016). Symbiotic bacteria in the host gut induce the production of detoxification enzymes to develop common metabolism and mineralization processes that act to improve host resistance (Scates et al., 2019). Studies on agricultural pests showed that the presence of Burkholderia (Kikuchi et al., 2012) and

The Role of Insect Symbiotic Bacteria in Metabolizing Phytochemicals and Agrochemicals

“…When exposed to agrochemicals, the survival, development, behavior, as well as the composition and abundance of gut bacteria in target insects are affected [ 70 ]. However, under long-term high selection pressure of agrochemicals, the target insects also evolve resistance to the exposed agrochemicals, and, in some cases, the diversity and abundance of gut microbiota between resistant insect populations and susceptible insect populations are significantly different [ 71 , 72 , 73 ]. Compared with susceptible insect strains, the uniquely enriched gut bacteria in resistant insects should receive more attention, because these bacteria may participate in conferring insect resistance to some agrochemicals [ 74 ].…”

A symbiotic gut bacterium enhances Aedes albopictus resistance to insecticide

“…The detailed methods for bacterial diversity analysis have been earlier described by Wang et al [6]. The sequencing data have been deposited in the Short Read Archive (NCBI) with an accession number PRJNA687827.…”

“…Furthermore, such infections are rapidly growing with the growing resistance in Ae. albopictus [5,6]. Therefore, to control mosquito-borne diseases, the management of resistant mechanisms in mosquitoes has become a key research strategy.…”

“…Importantly, symbiotic bacteria in the mosquito gut is suggested to play an important role in insecticide resistance [6,13]. The diversity and abundance of symbiotic bacteria may vary in different mosquito species; for instance, Ae.…”

“…Studies showed that Culex pipiens pallens and Ae. albopictus have significant differences in the diversity and abundance of intestinal symbiotic bacteria between the sensitive and resistant strains [6,28]. However, the role of these differences in the development of insecticidal resistance lacks strong evidence.…”