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Updated: Jul 26, 2025

A Bacterial Oral Feeding Assay with Antibiotic-Treated Mosquitoes
Published on: September 12, 2020
Bacterial Microbiota from Lab-Reared and Field-Captured Anopheles darlingi Midgut and Salivary Gland
Najara Akira Costa Dos Santos1,2, Vanessa Rafaela de Carvalho3, Jayme A Souza-Neto3
1Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Experimental, Departament of Medicine, Fundação Universidade Federal de Rondônia/Fiocruz Rondônia, Porto Velho 76812-245, RO, Brazil.
Abstract:
Anopheles darlingi is a major malaria vector in the Amazon region and, like other vectors, harbors a community of microorganisms with which it shares a network of interactions. Here, we describe the diversity and bacterial composition from the midguts and salivary glands of lab-reared and field-captured An. darlingi using metagenome sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The libraries were built using the amplification of the region V3-V4 16S rRNA gene. The bacterial community from the salivary glands was more diverse and richer than the community from the midguts. However, the salivary glands and midguts only showed dissimilarities in beta diversity between lab-reared mosquitoes. Despite that, intra-variability was observed in the samples. Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas were dominant in the tissues of lab-reared mosquitoes. Sequences of Wolbachia and Asaia were both found in the tissue of lab-reared mosquitoes; however, only Asaia was found in field-captured An. darlingi, but in low abundance. This is the first report on the characterization of microbiota composition from the salivary glands of An. darlingi from lab-reared and field-captured individuals. This study can provide invaluable insights for future investigations regarding mosquito development and interaction between mosquito microbiota and Plasmodium sp.

