Implications of mosquito metabolism on vector competence

Mosquito-borne diseases(MBDs)annually kill nearly half a million people.Due to the lack of effective vaccines and drugs on most MBDs,disease prevention relies primarily on controlling mosquitoes.Despite huge efforts having been put into mosquito control,eco-friendly and sustainable mosquito-control strategies are still lacking and urgently demanded.Most mosquito-transmitted pathogens have lost the capacity of de novo nutrition biosynthesis,and rely on their vertebrate and invertebrate hosts for sustenance during the long-term obligate parasitism process.Therefore,a better understanding of the metabolic interactions between mosquitoes and pathogens will contribute to the discovery of novel metabolic targets or regulators that lead to reduced mosquito populations or vector competence.This review summarizes the current knowledge about the effects of mosquito metabolism on the transmission of multiple pathogens.We also discuss that research in this area remains to be explored to develop multiple biological prevention and control strategies for MBDs.

Survival effects of antibiotic exposure during the larval and adult stages in the West Nile virus vector Culex pipiens

The ability of mosquitoes to transmit a pathogen is affected,among other factors,by their survival rate,which is partly modulated by their microbiota.Mosquito microbiota is acquired during the larval phase and modified during their development and adult feeding behavior,being highly dependent on environmental factors.Pharmaceutical residues including antibiotics are widespread pollutants potentially being present in mosquito breeding waters likely affecting their microbiota.Here,we used Culex pipiens mosquitoes to assess the impact of antibiotic exposure during the larval and adult stages on the survival rate of adult mosquitoes.Wild-collected larvae were randomly assigned to two treatments:larvae maintained in water supplemented with antibiotics and control larvae.Emerged adults were subsequently assigned to each of two treatments,fed with sugar solution with antibiotics and fed only with sugar solution(controls).Larval exposure to antibiotics significantly increased the survival rate of adult females that received a control diet.In addition,the effect of adult exposure to antibiotics on the survival rate of both male and female mosquitoes depended on the number of days that larvae fed ad libitum in the laboratory before emergence.In particular,shorter larval ad libitum feeding periods reduced the survival rate of antibiotic-treated adult mosquitoes compared with those that emerged after a longer larval feeding period.These differences were not found in control adult mosquitoes.Our results extend the current understanding of the impact of antibiotic exposure of mosquitoes on a key component of vectorial capacity,that is the vector survival rate.