Geosmin Attracts Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes to Oviposition Sites

Melo, Nadia; Wolff, Gabriella H.; Costa-da-Silva, André Luis; Arribas, Robert; Triana, Merybeth Fernandez; Gugger, Muriel; Riffell, Jeffrey A.; DeGennaro, Matthew; Stensmyr, Marcus C.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.002

Cited by 77 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…For example, we cannot rule out the possibility that that we simply lacked the power to detect the preference. Yet, our sample sizes are comparable to many previous studies that used a similar experimental design and found significant oviposition preference (Afify, Horlacher, Roller, & Galizia, 2014;Allan & Kline, 1995;Ganesan, Mendki, Suryanarayana, Prakash, & Malhotra, 2006;Melo et al, 2020). It is also possible that the choices we tested are not of a magnitude detectable by female Ae.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Various abiotic and biotic factors have been shown to influence oviposition choices of Ae. aegypti (Day, 2016), including container size (Bond & Fay, 1969;Burkot et al, 2007;Harrington, Ponlawat, Edman, Scott, & Vermeylen, 2008), shading (Barrera, Amador, & Clark, 2006;Prado, Maciel, Leite, & Souza, 2017), water salinity (Matthews, Younger, & Vosshall, 2019), color and texture of the sites (Bentley & Day, 1989;Fay & Perry, 1965), presence of conspecific eggs, larvae, and pupae ), predators (Albeny-Simoes et al, 2014Pamplona Lde, Alencar, Lima, & Heukelbach, 2009), bacterial density and community composition (Arbaoui & Chua, 2014;Hazard, Mayer, & Savage, 1967;Ponnusamy, Schal, Wesson, Arellano, & Apperson, 2015), and chemical components (Afify & Galizia, 2015;Melo et al, 2019). However, most of the existing studies were conducted in laboratory settings with artificial oviposition choices.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Oviposition of the mosquitoAedes aegyptiin forest and domestic habitats in Africa

Xia

Dweck

Lutomiah

et al. 2020

Preprint

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AbstractThe theory of ecological divergence provides a useful framework to understand the adaptation of many species to anthropogenic (‘domestic’) habitats. The mosquito Aedes aegypti, a global vector of several arboviral diseases, presents an excellent study system. Ae. aegypti originated in African forests, but the populations that invaded other continents have specialized in domestic habitats. In its African native range, the species can be found in both forest and domestic habitats like villages. A crucial behavioral change between mosquitoes living in different habitats is their oviposition choices. Forest Ae. aegypti lay eggs in natural water containers like tree holes, while their domestic counterparts heavily rely on artificial containers such as plastic buckets. These habitat-specific containers likely have different environmental conditions, which could drive the incipient divergent evolution of oviposition in African Ae. aegypti. To examine this hypothesis, we conducted field research in two African locations, La Lopé, Gabon and Rabai, Kenya, where Ae. aegypti live in both forests and nearby villages. We first characterized a series of environmental conditions of natural oviposition sites, including physical characteristics, microbial density, bacterial composition, and volatile profiles. Our data showed that in both locations, environmental conditions of oviposition sites did differ between habitats. To examine potential behavioral divergence, we then conducted field and laboratory oviposition choice experiments to compare the oviposition preference of forest and village mosquitoes. The field experiment suggested that forest mosquitoes readily accepted artificial containers. In laboratory oviposition assays, forest and village mosquito colonies did not show a differential preference towards several conditions that featured forest versus village oviposition sites. Collectively, there is little evidence from our study that environmental differences lead to strong and easily measurable divergence in oviposition behavior between Ae. aegypti that occupy nearby forest and domestic habitats within Africa, despite clear divergence between African and non-African Ae. aegypti.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

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confidence: 99%

Oviposition of the mosquitoAedes aegyptiin forest and domestic habitats in Africa

Xia

Dweck

Lutomiah

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Studies have shown that many volatile compounds in soil are produced by soil actinobacteria, and the soil actinobacteria can even affect the growth of underground pathogenic fungi and aboveground plants [19][20][21]. Recent studies indicated that some insects can be attracted or repelled by the geosmin or 2-methylisoborneol produced by the actinobacteria [22][23][24]. Geosmin induces aversion in Drosophila melanogaster presumably signaling the presence of harmful microbes on food [24].…”

Section: Plos Pathogensmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nesting preference of an invasive ant is associated with the cues produced by actinobacteria in soil

et al. 2020

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Soil-dwelling animals are at risk of pathogen infection in soils. When choosing nesting sites, animals could reduce this risk by avoiding contact with pathogens, yet there is currently little evidence. We tested this hypothesis using Solenopsis invicta as a model system. Newly mated queens of S. invicta were found to nest preferentially in soil containing more actinobacteria of Streptomyces and Nocardiopsis and to be attracted to two volatiles produced by these bacteria, geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol. Actinobacteria-rich soil was favored by S. invicta and this soil contained fewer putative entomopathogenic fungi than adjacent areas. Queens in such soil benefited from a higher survival rate. In culture, isolated actinobacteria inhibited entomopathogenic fungi, suggested that their presence may reduce the risk of fungal infection. These results indicated a soil-dwelling ant may choose nest sites presenting relatively low pathogen risk by detecting the odors produced by bacteria with anti-fungal properties.

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“…S7). While the unrelated volatile terpene geosmin is known to in uence insect behaviour via repulsion (52) and attraction (31,32), the biological effect of 2-MIB on ies has not be described. We therefore tested 2-MIB for effects on adult ies in a T-maze and found that low concentrations (2 µg/mL at the source) of compound attracted them (67% of total ies preferred 2-MIB, p<0.001) whereas high concentrations (2x10 3 µg/mL at the source) repelled them (4.7% preferred 2-MIB, p<0.001) (Fig.…”

Section: Cosmomycin D Is the Causative Agent Of Killing By Wac-288mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is perhaps not surprising as insects and streptomycetes are abundant, have co-existed for more than 479 million years, and are certain to have played important roles in each other's evolutionary history (20). Indeed, most streptomycetes produce geosmin, a volatile compound that can serve as a chemical attractant for springtails and mosquitoes (30,31). The production of volatile terpenes is conserved in distantly related bacterial phyla including the Myxococcus and some fungi so it is likely that such interactions are common in nature (32,33).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical entrapment and killing of insects by bacteria

Daniel-Ivad

Jeedigunta

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Actinobacteria such as the filamentous streptomycetes are widely known for their ability to produce specialized metabolites that include antibacterial and antifungal compounds. In addition, a growing body of work demonstrates that many insects harbour actinobacteria on their bodies and in their nests. The result of these mutualistic relationships is the protection of their offspring or food sources by virtue of the bacterially encoded specialized metabolites. However, some actinobacteria produce molecules that are toxic to insects and the relevance of this toxicity in nature is unknown. We have explored interactions between streptomycetes and the fruit fly Drosophila. We find that many streptomycetes produce specialized metabolites that have potent larvicidal effects against the fly. Larvae that ingest spores of the species that produce these toxic molecules die as a result. Strikingly, the mechanism of toxicity is specific to the bacterium’s chemical arsenal: cosmomycin D producing cells induce a relatively slow-acting cell death-like response in the larval digestive tract and avermectin producing cells induce rapid onset, whole-body paralysis. We further show that fruit flies are attracted to the volatile terpene 2-methylisoborneol that is produced by most streptomycetes. This interaction can influence their food choice and egg-laying destination such that they preferentially deposit their eggs on contaminated food sources. As a result, the larvae that hatch in these toxic environments are subsequently killed. This phenomena of terpene-mediated attraction and specialized metabolite toxicity must pose a significant risk to insects in nature.

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Geosmin Attracts Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes to Oviposition Sites

Cited by 77 publications

References 40 publications

Oviposition of the mosquitoAedes aegyptiin forest and domestic habitats in Africa

Oviposition of the mosquitoAedes aegyptiin forest and domestic habitats in Africa

The nesting preference of an invasive ant is associated with the cues produced by actinobacteria in soil

Chemical entrapment and killing of insects by bacteria

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