Hegde Shivanand, Khanipov Kamil, Hornett Emily A, Nilyanimit Pornjarim, Pimenova Maria, Saldaña Miguel A, de Bekker Charissa, Golovko George, Hughes Grant L
Departments of Vector Biology and Tropical Disease Biology, Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
School of Life Sciences, Keele University, Newcastle, UK.
Anim Microbiome. 2024 Mar 7;6(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s42523-024-00298-4.
The mosquito microbiome is an important modulator of vector competence and vectoral capacity. Unlike the extensively studied bacterial microbiome, fungal communities in the mosquito microbiome (the mycobiome) remain largely unexplored. To work towards getting an improved understanding of the fungi associated with mosquitoes, we sequenced the mycobiome of three field-collected and laboratory-reared mosquito species (Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti, and Culex quinquefasciatus).
Our analysis showed both environment and host species were contributing to the diversity of the fungal microbiome of mosquitoes. When comparing species, Ae. albopictus possessed a higher number of diverse fungal taxa than Cx. quinquefasciatus, while strikingly less than 1% of reads from Ae. aegypti samples were fungal. Fungal reads from Ae. aegypti were < 1% even after inhibiting host amplification using a PNA blocker, indicating that this species lacked a significant fungal microbiome that was amplified using this sequencing approach. Using a mono-association mosquito infection model, we confirmed that mosquito-derived fungal isolates colonize Aedes mosquitoes and support growth and development at comparable rates to their bacterial counterparts. Strikingly, native bacterial taxa isolated from mosquitoes impeded the colonization of symbiotic fungi in Ae. aegypti suggesting interkingdom interactions shape fungal microbiome communities.
Collectively, this study adds to our understanding of the fungal microbiome of different mosquito species, that these fungal microbes support growth and development, and highlights that microbial interactions underpin fungal colonization of these medically relevent species.
蚊子微生物组是媒介能力和传病力的重要调节因子。与广泛研究的细菌微生物组不同，蚊子微生物组中的真菌群落（真菌微生物组）在很大程度上仍未得到充分探索。为了更好地了解与蚊子相关的真菌，我们对三种野外采集和实验室饲养的蚊子物种（白纹伊蚊、埃及伊蚊和致倦库蚊）的真菌微生物组进行了测序。
我们的分析表明，环境和宿主物种都对蚊子真菌微生物组的多样性有影响。在比较物种时，白纹伊蚊拥有比致倦库蚊更多样化的真菌分类群，而埃及伊蚊样本中真菌读数显著低于1%。即使使用肽核酸（PNA）阻断剂抑制宿主扩增后，埃及伊蚊的真菌读数仍<1%，这表明该物种缺乏使用这种测序方法扩增出的显著真菌微生物组。使用单关联蚊子感染模型，我们证实从蚊子中分离出的真菌分离株能在伊蚊中定殖，并以与细菌分离株相当的速率支持其生长和发育。令人惊讶的是，从蚊子中分离出的本地细菌分类群阻碍了共生真菌在埃及伊蚊中的定殖，这表明跨王国相互作用塑造了真菌微生物组群落。
总体而言，本研究增进了我们对不同蚊子物种真菌微生物组的理解，即这些真菌微生物支持生长和发育，并强调了微生物相互作用是这些医学相关物种真菌定殖的基础。
