Bacterial community composition and diversity associated with developmental stages of Anopheles subpictus

Malaria remains the deadliest vector-borne disease globally. Among different malaria vectors, Anopheles subpictus has been regarded as the potent vector across many Indian states. Microbiota in mosquitoes are critical determinants for their development, physiology, and vector competence, which differ significantly among mosquito species, life stages, and environmental parameters. Microbial profiles linked with various life stages of the emerging malaria vector, An. subpictus remain unexplored. In this study, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing (V1-V9 regions) was used to explore and analyze the microbial community dynamics within and between life stages. A total of 287,077 bacterial reads were generated and distributed into 40 phyla, 75 classes, 160 orders, 334 families, 961 genera, and 2398 species. Diversity analyses revealed that bacterial community structure varied significantly across the three life phases (larvae, pupae, adult) of An. subpictus. The larval stage has higher species richness compared to subsequent developmental stages. The sequence-based taxonomic profiling revealed that Methylobacterium, Clostridium, Bradyrhizobium, Cytophaga, Roseateles, Mitsuaria, Sphingomonas and Wolbachia were the dominant bacterial genera across the different life stages. Moreover, Methylobacterium sp. (51.6%) was the most abundant taxa in the adult female stage, whereas the larval stage was mainly dominated by Cytophaga (15.2%). This research advances our understanding of bacterial community composition and dynamics across the developmental succession of An. subpictus. The finding pinpoints dominant bacterial candidates that could be harnessed to develop microbial-based control strategies aimed at limiting mosquito-borne diseases.