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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Midgut microbiota of the malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae and interactions with Plasmodium falciparum infection

TLDR
Evidence is presented that the composition of the vector gut microbiota is one of the major components that determine the outcome of mosquito infections, and the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae in the mosquito midgut correlates significantly with the Plasmodium infection status.
Abstract
The susceptibility of Anopheles mosquitoes to Plasmodium infections relies on complex interactions between the insect vector and the malaria parasite. A number of studies have shown that the mosquito innate immune responses play an important role in controlling the malaria infection and that the strength of parasite clearance is under genetic control, but little is known about the influence of environmental factors on the transmission success. We present here evidence that the composition of the vector gut microbiota is one of the major components that determine the outcome of mosquito infections. A. gambiae mosquitoes collected in natural breeding sites from Cameroon were experimentally challenged with a wild P. falciparum isolate, and their gut bacterial content was submitted for pyrosequencing analysis. The meta-taxogenomic approach revealed a broader richness of the midgut bacterial flora than previously described. Unexpectedly, the majority of bacterial species were found in only a small proportion of mosquitoes, and only 20 genera were shared by 80% of individuals. We show that observed differences in gut bacterial flora of adult mosquitoes is a result of breeding in distinct sites, suggesting that the native aquatic source where larvae were grown determines the composition of the midgut microbiota. Importantly, the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae in the mosquito midgut correlates significantly with the Plasmodium infection status. This striking relationship highlights the role of natural gut environment in parasite transmission. Deciphering microbe-pathogen interactions offers new perspectives to control disease transmission.

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Reagent and laboratory contamination can critically impact sequence-based microbiome analyses

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that contaminating DNA is ubiquitous in commonly used DNA extraction kits and other laboratory reagents, varies greatly in composition between different kits and kit batches, and that this contamination critically impacts results obtained from samples containing a low microbial biomass.
Journal ArticleDOI

The gut microbiota of insects - diversity in structure and function.

TL;DR: Gut bacteria of other insects have also been shown to contribute to nutrition, protection from parasites and pathogens, modulation of immune responses, and communication, and the extent of these roles is still unclear and awaits further studies.
Journal ArticleDOI

Mosquitoes rely on their gut microbiota for development.

TL;DR: It is suggested that three mosquito species spanning the breadth of the Culicidae depend on their gut microbiome for development, and pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA provides new insights about the acquisition and structure of bacterial communities in mosquitoes.
Journal ArticleDOI

Diversity and function of bacterial microbiota in the mosquito holobiont.

TL;DR: A review of the diversity and functions of mosquito-associated bacteria across multiple variation factors, emphasizing recent findings, is presented.
References
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Journal Article

R: A language and environment for statistical computing.

R Core Team
- 01 Jan 2014 - 
TL;DR: Copyright (©) 1999–2012 R Foundation for Statistical Computing; permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved on all copies.

CANOCO Reference Manual and CanoDraw for Windows User's Guide: Software for Canonical Community Ordination (version 4.5)

TL;DR: Canoco as discussed by the authors is a software package for multivariate data analysis, with an emphasis on dimesional reduction (ordination), regression analysis, and the combination of the two, constrained ordination.
Journal ArticleDOI

Sequencing technologies-the next generation

TL;DR: A technical review of template preparation, sequencing and imaging, genome alignment and assembly approaches, and recent advances in current and near-term commercially available NGS instruments is presented.
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