Bacterial associations reveal spatial population dynamics in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes

Abstract

The intolerable burden of malaria has for too long plagued humanity and the prospect of eradicating malaria is an optimistic, but reachable, target in the 21st century. However, extensive knowledge is needed about the spatial structure of mosquito populations in order to develop effective interventions against malaria transmission. We hypothesized that the microbiota associated with a mosquito reflects acquisition of bacteria in different environments. Here, we show that the different environments gave each mosquito a specific bacterial profile, and thus provided information on the spatial dynamics of the mosquito population as a whole. By analyzing the whole-body bacterial flora of An. gambiae mosquitoes from Burkina Faso by 16 S amplicon sequencing, we found that the mosquitoes formed clear local populations within a meta-population network. We believe that using microbiotas as proxies for population structures will greatly aid improving the performance of vector interventions around the world.

Published in

Scientific Reports
2016, volume: 6, article number: 22806

SLU Authors

• Nilsson, Louise

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Brunius, Carl

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hopkins, Richard

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Greenwich

• Terenius, Olle

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Global goals (SDG)

SDG3 Good health and well-being

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep22806

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/71902