Department of Entomology, University of California Riverside, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 15;8(8):e72522. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072522. eCollection 2013.
Microbes are important for mosquito nutrition, growth, reproduction and control. In this study, we examined bacterial communities associated with larval mosquitoes and their habitats. Specifically, we characterized bacterial communities associated with late larval instars of the western encephalitis mosquito (Culextarsalis), the submerged portions of two emergent macrophytes (California bulrush, Schoenoplectuscalifornicus and alkali bulrush, Schoenoplectusmaritimus), and the associated water columns to investigate potential differential use of resources by mosquitoes in different wetland habitats. Using next-generation sequence data from 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions, the alpha diversity of mosquito gut microbial communities did not differ between pond mesocosms containing distinct monotypic plants. Proteobacteria, dominated by the genus Thorsellia (Enterobacteriaceae), was the most abundant phylum recovered from C. tarsalis larvae. Approximately 49% of bacterial OTUs found in larval mosquitoes were identical to OTUs recovered from the water column and submerged portions of the two bulrushes. Plant and water samples were similar to one another, both being dominated by Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia phyla. Overall, the bacterial communities within C. tarsalis larvae were conserved and did not change across sampling dates and between two distinct plant habitats. Although Thorsellia spp. dominated mosquito gut communities, overlap of mosquito gut, plant and water-column OTUs likely reveal the effects of larval feeding. Future research will investigate the role of the key indicator groups of bacteria across the different developmental stages of this mosquito species.
微生物对蚊子的营养、生长、繁殖和控制很重要。在这项研究中，我们研究了与幼虫蚊子及其栖息地相关的细菌群落。具体来说，我们描述了与西方脑炎蚊子（Culextarsalis）晚期幼虫、两种挺水植物（加州芦苇，Schoenoplectuscalifornicus 和碱芦苇，Schoenoplectusmaritimus）的淹没部分以及相关水柱相关的细菌群落，以研究蚊子在不同湿地生境中对资源的潜在差异利用。使用 16S rRNA 基因高变区的下一代序列数据，包含不同单型植物的池塘中蚊子肠道微生物群落的 alpha 多样性没有差异。厚壁菌门，以 Thorsellia 属（肠杆菌科）为主，是从 C. tarsalis 幼虫中回收的最丰富的门。在幼虫蚊子中发现的约 49%的细菌 OTUs 与从水柱和两种芦苇的淹没部分回收的 OTUs 相同。植物和水样彼此相似，均以放线菌门、拟杆菌门、蓝细菌门、变形菌门和疣微菌门为主。总的来说，C. tarsalis 幼虫内的细菌群落是保守的，并且在采样日期之间和两个不同的植物生境之间没有变化。尽管 Thorsellia 属在蚊子肠道群落中占主导地位，但蚊子肠道、植物和水柱 OTUs 的重叠可能揭示了幼虫取食的影响。未来的研究将调查这些细菌关键指示类群在该蚊子物种不同发育阶段的作用。
