Kropf Alida, Dabo Stéphanie, Amann Marine Océane, Lambrechts Louis, Koella Jacob C
Laboratory of Ecology and Epidemiology of Parasites, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel Faculty of Sciences, Neuchâtel 2000, Switzerland.
Department of Biology and Biotechnology L Spallanazani, University of Pavia, Pavia, Lombardia 27100, Italy.
Proc Biol Sci. 2025 Jul;292(2051):20250832. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0832. Epub 2025 Jul 30.
Because temperature affects many aspects of the physiology of mosquitoes, including their immune response, anthropogenic climate warming is expected to change the epidemiology and thus the burden of mosquito-borne diseases. However, the impact of temperature on epidemiology may differ from current predictions, if the mosquitoes can adapt evolutionarily to their changing environment. Here, we investigated how thermal adaptation affects the growth of two infectious agents-the bacterium and dengue virus-in the mosquito . We used a panel of mosquito lines that had undergone 19-20 generations of experimental evolution at temperatures from 24°C to 30°C. We assessed the infection of and dengue virus in each line as a function of adaptation temperature (during experimental evolution) and rearing temperature (during the infection experiment). While increasing rearing temperature enhanced both bacterial and viral growth, adaptation temperature had no detectable main effect on either. The effect of rearing temperature on bacterial growth was only slightly influenced by adaptation temperature. Our findings suggest that thermal adaptation is unlikely to directly affect mosquito immune competence, making one-generation experiments with different rearing generations reliable. We caution that thermal adaptation of mosquitoes may influence other traits underlying pathogen transmission, such as longevity and biting rate. Accounting for the potential for adaptation to modify mosquito thermal responses will improve the predictions of changes in transmission risk due to climate warming.
由于温度会影响蚊子生理的许多方面，包括它们的免疫反应，预计人为气候变暖将改变蚊子传播疾病的流行病学，进而改变其负担。然而，如果蚊子能够在进化上适应不断变化的环境，那么温度对流行病学的影响可能与当前的预测有所不同。在这里，我们研究了热适应如何影响两种感染因子——细菌和登革病毒——在蚊子体内的生长。我们使用了一组在24°C至30°C温度下经过19 - 20代实验进化的蚊子品系。我们评估了每个品系中细菌和登革病毒的感染情况，将其作为适应温度（在实验进化期间）和饲养温度（在感染实验期间）的函数。虽然饲养温度升高会增强细菌和病毒的生长，但适应温度对两者均无明显的主要影响。饲养温度对细菌生长的影响仅略微受适应温度的影响。我们的研究结果表明，热适应不太可能直接影响蚊子的免疫能力，使得不同饲养代的一代实验具有可靠性。我们提醒，蚊子的热适应可能会影响病原体传播的其他潜在特征，如寿命和叮咬率。考虑到适应改变蚊子热反应的可能性，将改善对气候变暖导致的传播风险变化的预测。
