Filtration of environmentally sourced aquatic media impacts laboratory‐colonised Aedes albopictus early development and adult bacteriome composition

Abstract

Microorganisms form close associations with metazoan hosts forming symbiotic communities, known as microbiomes, that modulate host physiological processes. Mosquitoes are of special interest in exploring microbe‐modulated host processes due to their oversized impact on human health. However, most mosquito work is done under controlled laboratory conditions where natural microbiomes are not present and inferences from these studies may not extend to natural populations. Here we attempt to assemble a wild‐resembling bacteriome under laboratory conditions in an established laboratory colony of Aedes albopictus using aquatic media from environmentally‐exposed and differentially filtered larval habitats. While we did not successfully replicate a wild bacteriome using these filtrations, we show that these manipulations alter the bacteriomes of mosquitoes, generating a unique composition not seen in wild populations collected from and near our source water or in our laboratory colony. We also demonstrate that our filtration regimens impact larval development times, as well as impact adult survival on different carbohydrate diets.