The mosquito microbiome responds to dietary shifts in adult female Aedes aegypti

Mosquitoes transmit pathogens that cause disease affecting thousands of individuals around the world each year. Resistance to insecticide has led to an increase in vector-borne diseases, hindering mosquito control and necessitating novel control methods. The mosquito microbiome is a major determinant of a mosquito’s fitness and susceptibility to pathogen infection, and microbiome manipulation is growing in relevance to mosquito control. One understudied element of mosquito-microbiome interactions is metabolism. Both host and microbes rely on metabolites derived from a mosquito’s diet for their success, with dietary inputs critical to longevity, egg production, and immune response. Microbiome composition shifts dramatically after blood feeding, however the response of specific microbes to specific dietary metabolites is unknown. This study aimed to address how the microbiome of Aedes aegypti responds to shifts in host dietary inputs by delivering different doses of iron, sugar, and protein via sucrose meal. Impact on bacterial load was assessed via colony forming unit assay and bacterial diversity via sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene v4 region. We observed decreased bacterial load in the presence of iron, high sucrose, and high protein. Similarly, each dietary treatment impacted the relative abundance of bacteria in the microbiome, with proteobacteria notably increasing in abundance after protein consumption. Our findings highlight shifts in microbial assembly in response to dietary intake and provide insight into the functional niches filled by key mosquito-associated bacteria and into variation in mosquito biological state after feeding. By understanding the mosquito microbiome, we can explore ways to control mosquitoes.