The mosquito-associated microbiota is increasingly recognized as an important factor influencing vector competence and the outcome of interactions between mosquitoes and arboviruses. However, the mechanisms through which changes in the microbial community affect arboviral infection remain poorly understood. This project investigates the impact of microbiota disruption on arbovirus infection in adult female mosquito vectors.
Adult female mosquitoes were maintained under standard conditions and divided into untreated and antibiotic-treated groups. Following treatment, mosquitoes were exposed to an arbovirus through an infectious blood meal, and infection was evaluated at 14 days post blood meal. Dissected midguts from infected and non-infected mosquitoes were analyzed by next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify the most relevant changes in the composition and abundance of bacterial and fungal mosquito-communities associated with arbovirus infection. . These analyses aim to identify microbial taxa or community-level changes that may account for differences in vector competence across mosquito–virus pairs.
This project will contribute to understanding the role of the mosquito microbiota as a determinant of vector competence and may help identify microbial factors or community characteristics associated with resistance or susceptibility to arboviral infection. Ultimately, defining the relationship between microbiota composition and arbovirus infection may provide new insights into the biological mechanisms regulating arbovirus transmission by mosquito vectors.
