Pimenta de Oliveira Sofia, Dantas de Oliveira Caroline, Viana Sant'Anna Mauricio Roberto, Carneiro Dutra Heverton Leandro, Caragata Eric Pearce, Moreira Luciano Andrade
Grupo Mosquitos Vetores: Endossimbiontes e Interação Patógeno-Vetor, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou - Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2017 Aug;87:65-74. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2017.06.010. Epub 2017 Jun 24.
Blood feeding in Aedes aegypti is essential for reproduction, but also permits the mosquito to act as a vector for key human pathogens such as the Zika and dengue viruses. Wolbachia pipientis is an endosymbiotic bacterium that can manipulate the biology of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, making them less competent hosts for many pathogens. Yet while Wolbachia affects other aspects of host physiology, it is unclear whether it influences physiological processes associated with blood meal digestion. To that end, we examined the effects of wMel Wolbachia infection in Ae. aegypti, on survival post-blood feeding, blood meal excretion, rate of oviposition, expression levels of key genes involved in oogenesis, and activity levels of trypsin blood digestion enzymes. We observed that wMel infection altered the rate and duration of blood meal excretion, delayed the onset of oviposition and was associated with a greater number of eggs being laid later. wMel-infected Ae. aegypti also had lower levels of key yolk protein precursor genes necessary for oogenesis. However, all of these effects occurred without a change in trypsin activity. These results suggest that Wolbachia infection may disrupt normal metabolic processes associated with blood feeding and reproduction in Ae. aegypti.
埃及伊蚊吸食血液对其繁殖至关重要，但同时也使这种蚊子成为寨卡病毒和登革热病毒等主要人类病原体的传播媒介。嗜菌共生体沃尔巴克氏体是一种内共生细菌，它能够操控埃及伊蚊的生物学特性，使其成为许多病原体的不那么适宜的宿主。然而，尽管沃尔巴克氏体影响宿主生理的其他方面，但它是否影响与血液消化相关的生理过程尚不清楚。为此，我们研究了wMel沃尔巴克氏体感染埃及伊蚊后，对吸血后的存活情况、血液排泄、产卵率、卵子发生相关关键基因的表达水平以及胰蛋白酶血液消化酶的活性水平的影响。我们观察到，wMel感染改变了血液排泄的速率和持续时间，延迟了产卵开始时间，并且与后期产下更多的卵有关。感染wMel的埃及伊蚊卵黄蛋白前体关键基因的水平也较低。然而，所有这些影响出现时胰蛋白酶活性并未改变。这些结果表明，沃尔巴克氏体感染可能会扰乱埃及伊蚊与吸血和繁殖相关的正常代谢过程。
