Instituto Gonçalo Moniz-Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Salvador, Brazil.
Escola de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia-Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Jan 21;15(1):e0009034. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009034. eCollection 2021 Jan.
Sand flies are the insects responsible for transmitting Leishmania parasites, the causative agents of leishmaniasis in humans. However, the effects of sand fly breeding sites on their biology and ecology remain poorly understood. Herein, we studied how larval nutrition associated with putative breeding sites of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis affects their oviposition, development, microbiome, and susceptibility to Leishmania by rearing L. longipalpis on substrates collected from an endemic area for leishmaniasis in Brazil. The results showed that female L. longipalpis select the oviposition site based on its potential to promote larval maturation and while composting cashew leaf litter hindered the development, larvae reared on chicken feces developed rapidly. Typical gut microbial profiles were found in larvae reared upon cashew leaf litter. Adult females from larvae reared on substrate collected in chicken coops were infected with Leishmania infantum, indicating that they were highly susceptible to the parasite. In conclusion, the larval breeding sites can exert an important role in the epidemiology of leishmaniasis.
沙蝇是传播利什曼原虫的昆虫，利什曼原虫是人类利什曼病的病原体。然而，沙蝇滋生地对其生物学和生态学的影响仍知之甚少。在此，我们通过在巴西利什曼病流行地区采集的基质上饲养长角血蝉的幼虫，研究了与沙蝇长角血蝉潜在滋生地相关的幼虫营养如何影响其产卵、发育、微生物组和对利什曼原虫的易感性。结果表明，雌性长角血蝉会根据基质促进幼虫成熟的潜力来选择产卵地点，而堆肥腰果叶屑会阻碍幼虫发育，但鸡粪能使幼虫迅速生长。在腰果叶屑上饲养的幼虫体内存在典型的肠道微生物群。在鸡舍收集的基质上饲养的幼虫所产生的成年雌性个体感染了婴儿利什曼原虫，这表明它们极易受到寄生虫的感染。总之，幼虫滋生地在利什曼病的流行病学中起着重要作用。
