Larval habitat determines the bacterial and fungal microbiota of the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti

Karima Zouache, Edwige Martin, Nil Rahola, Marc F. Gangue, Guillaume Minard, Audrey Dubost, Van Tran Van, Laura Dickson, Diego Ayala, Louis Lambrechts, Claire Valiente Moro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mosquito larvae are naturally exposed to microbial communities present in a variety of larval development sites. Several earlier studies have highlighted that the larval habitat influences the composition of the larval bacterial microbiota. However, little information is available on their fungal microbiota, i.e. the mycobiota. In this study, we provide the first simultaneous characterization of the bacterial and fungal microbiota in field-collected Aedes aegypti larvae and their respective aquatic habitats. We evaluated whether the microbial communities associated with the breeding site may affect the composition of both the bacterial and fungal communities in Ae. aegypti larvae. Our results show a higher similarity in microbial community structure for both bacteria and fungi between larvae and the water in which larvae develop than between larvae from different breeding sites. This supports the hypothesis that larval habitat is a major factor driving microbial composition in mosquito larvae. Since the microbiota plays an important role in mosquito biology, unravelling the network of interactions that operate between bacteria and fungi is essential to better understand the functioning of the mosquito holobiont.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberfiac016
JournalFEMS Microbiology Ecology
Volume98
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bacteria
  • breeding site
  • larva
  • microbiota
  • mosquito
  • mycobiota

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Ecology
  • Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

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