Culex quinquefasciatus Holobiont: A Fungal Metagenomic Approach

FLORES, GUILLERMO A. M.; LOPEZ, ROCIO P.; CERRUDO, CAROLINA S.; CONSOLO, V. FABIANA; BERÓN, CORINA M.

Frontiers in Fungal Biology

Frontiers

Lugar: Lausanne; Año: 2022 vol. 3

Microorganisms associated with mosquitoes have fundamental roles, not only in theirnutrition, but also in physiological and immunological processes, and in their adaptation tothe environment as well. Studies on mosquito hologenomes have increased significantlyduring the last years, achieving important advances in the characterization of the “corebacteriome” of some species of health importance. However, the fungal mycobiome hasnot been exhaustively researched, especially throughout the life cycle of somehematophagous mosquito species. In this work, the diversity and composition of fungalcommunities in different developmental stages, sexes, and adult nutrition of Culexquinquefasciatus reared on laboratory conditions were characterized, using internaltranscribed spacer high throughput amplicon sequencing. Larvae presented a higherfungal richness, while sucrose-fed males and females showed a similar diversity betweenthem. Blood-fed females presented few operational taxonomic units with an evendistribution. Results are consistent with the reduction of larval microbiota after molting,observed for the bacterial microbiome in other mosquito species. The filamentousAscomycota Penicillium polonicum and Cladosporium sp. were present in all stages ofthe mosquitoes; in addition, the presence of yeasts in the insects or their subsequentcolonization associated with their diet is also discussed. These results suggest that somespecies of fungi could be essential for the nutrition and development of mosquitoesthroughout their life cycle.