Host-environment interplay shapes fungal diversity in mosquitoes

Abstract

Mosquito larvae encounter diverse assemblages of bacteria (i.e. 'microbiota') and fungi (i.e. 'mycobiota') in the aquatic environments they develop in. However, while a number of studies have addressed the diversity and function of microbiota in mosquito life history, relatively little is known about mosquito-mycobiota interactions outside of several key fungal entomopathogens. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing of ITS2 gene amplicons to provide the first simultaneous characterization of the mycobiota in field-collected Aedes albopictus larvae and their associated aquatic environments. Our results reveal unprecedented variation in mycobiota among adjacent but discrete larval breeding habitats. Our results also reveal distinct mycobiota assembly in the mosquito gut versus other tissues, with gut-associated fungal communities being most similar to those present in the environment where larvae feed. Altogether, our results identify the environment as the dominant factor shaping mosquito mycobiota with no evidence of environmental filtering of the gut mycobiota. These results also identify mosquito feeding behavior and fungal mode of nutrition as potential drivers of tissue-specific mycobiota assembly after environmental acquisition.

A tangled threesome: understanding arbovirus infection in Aedes spp. and the effect of the mosquito microbiota

“…Mosquitoes are holometabolous insects with differential exposure to microorganisms throughout their lives (Coon et al, 2014(Coon et al, , 2016Correa et al, 2018;Scolari et al, 2019;Tawidian et al, 2021), and their microbiota include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and archaea (Dickson et al, 2017(Dickson et al, , 2018Öhlund et al, 2019;Tawidian et al, 2021). A. aegypti and A. albopictus breeding sites are usually small natural or artificial water bodies that can be clean or polluted (Chandrasiri et al, 2020).…”

“…A. aegypti and A. albopictus breeding sites are usually small natural or artificial water bodies that can be clean or polluted (Chandrasiri et al, 2020). The physicochemical characteristics of the breeding site influence the richness and diversity of the microbial composition in the water and mosquitoes (Gusmão et al, 2007;Yadav et al, 2015;Bozic et al, 2017;Dickson et al, 2017;Mancini et al, 2018;Bogale et al, 2020;Tawidian et al, 2021).…”