Foo Aidan, Brettell Laura E, Nichols Holly L, Medina Muñoz Miguel, Lysne Jessica A, Dhokiya Vishaal, Hoque Ananya F, Brackney Doug E, Caragata Eric P, Hutchinson Michael L, Jacobs-Lorena Marcelo, Lampe David J, Martin Edwige, Valiente Moro Claire, Povelones Michael, Short Sarah M, Steven Blaire, Xu Jiannong, Paustian Timothy D, Rondon Michelle R, Hughes Grant L, Coon Kerri L, Heinz Eva
Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Manchester, United Kingdom.
PLoS Biol. 2024 Nov 15;22(11):e3002897. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002897. eCollection 2024 Nov.
Mosquitoes transmit medically important human pathogens, including viruses like dengue virus and parasites such as Plasmodium spp., the causative agent of malaria. Mosquito microbiomes are critically important for the ability of mosquitoes to transmit disease-causing agents. However, while large collections of bacterial isolates and genomic data exist for vertebrate microbiomes, the vast majority of work in mosquitoes to date is based on 16S rRNA gene amplicon data that provides limited taxonomic resolution and no functional information. To address this gap and facilitate future studies using experimental microbiome manipulations, we generated a bacterial Mosquito-Associated Isolate Collection (MosAIC) consisting of 392 bacterial isolates with extensive metadata and high-quality draft genome assemblies that are publicly available, both isolates and sequence data, for use by the scientific community. MosAIC encompasses 142 species spanning 29 bacterial families, with members of the Enterobacteriaceae comprising 40% of the collection. Phylogenomic analysis of 3 genera, Enterobacter, Serratia, and Elizabethkingia, reveal lineages of mosquito-associated bacteria isolated from different mosquito species in multiple laboratories. Investigation into species' pangenomes further reveals clusters of genes specific to these lineages, which are of interest for future work to test for functions connected to mosquito host association. Altogether, we describe the generation of a physical collection of mosquito-associated bacterial isolates, their genomic data, and analyses of selected groups in context of genome data from closely related isolates, providing a unique, highly valuable resource for research on bacterial colonisation and adaptation within mosquito hosts. Future efforts will expand the collection to include broader geographic and host species representation, especially from individuals collected from field populations, as well as other mosquito-associated microbes, including fungi, archaea, and protozoa.
蚊子传播对医学至关重要的人类病原体，包括登革热病毒等病毒以及疟原虫属等寄生虫（疟疾的病原体）。蚊子的微生物群对于蚊子传播致病因子的能力至关重要。然而，虽然脊椎动物微生物群有大量的细菌分离株和基因组数据，但迄今为止，蚊子方面的绝大多数工作都是基于16S rRNA基因扩增子数据，这些数据提供的分类分辨率有限且没有功能信息。为了填补这一空白并促进未来使用实验性微生物群操作的研究，我们生成了一个细菌蚊子相关分离株集合（MosAIC），其中包括392个细菌分离株，这些分离株具有广泛的元数据和高质量的基因组草图组装，分离株和序列数据均可公开获取，供科学界使用。MosAIC涵盖29个细菌科的142个物种，其中肠杆菌科成员占该集合的40%。对肠杆菌属、沙雷氏菌属和伊丽莎白菌属这3个属的系统基因组分析揭示了在多个实验室从不同蚊子物种中分离出的与蚊子相关细菌的谱系。对物种泛基因组的研究进一步揭示了这些谱系特有的基因簇，这对于未来测试与蚊子宿主关联相关功能的工作具有重要意义。总之，我们描述了蚊子相关细菌分离株的实物集合、它们的基因组数据，以及在来自密切相关分离株的基因组数据背景下对选定群体的分析，为研究蚊子宿主体内的细菌定殖和适应性提供了一个独特且极具价值的资源。未来的工作将扩大该集合，以纳入更广泛的地理和宿主物种代表，特别是从野外种群采集的个体，以及其他与蚊子相关的微生物，包括真菌、古菌和原生动物。
