Biology subjects

Magistrado, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Magistrado, D..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

The microbiota impacts life history traits and mating success in male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes transmit multiple arboviruses, but population suppression through the mass release of sterile or incompatible male mosquitoes can effectively reduce populations. These methods depend on the reliable mass-rearing of healthy, robust males that can successfully mate with wild females. The microbiota, a critical component of the larval diet, can dramatically influence life history traits relevant to mass-rearing and male quality. Here, we used axenic (microbe-free), monoxenic (inoculated with E. coli), and "laboratory community" mosquitoes (inoculated with an undefined microbiota derived from laboratory mosquitoes) to show that longevity was significantly enhanced in axenic and monoxenic males compared to laboratory community males. Moreover, monoxenic males more efficiently obtained mates in non-competitive mating scenarios compared to laboratory community males. However, microbiota treatment had no effect when males from different treatments competed for a mate. Our findings suggest that the microbiota is a key determinant of male mosquito life history with direct implications for optimizing production of males for control programs. TeaserThe microbiota of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes affects multiple male life history traits.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2026

The Aedes aegypti bacterial microbiota is robust to infection with the obligate microsporidian parasite Edhazardia aedis.

Edhazardia aedis is an obligate microsporidian parasite of the arthropod vector Aedes aegypti, which is responsible for the spread of several vertebrate pathogens of global health importance. E. aedis can be highly virulent to Ae. aegypti and infection has severely detrimental effects on multiple life history traits that are relevant to the vectoral capacity of Ae. aegypti, including longevity, body size, propensity to host-seek and blood-feed, and reproductive capacity. Because E. aedis is also highly specific to Ae. aegypti and is incapable of completing its full life cycle in any other mosquito species, E. aedis merits investigation as a novel tool for biological vector control. In the present study, we queried the effect of E. aedis infection on the bacterial microbiota of adult female Ae. aegypti using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Analysis of sequencing data revealed that the bacterial microbiota community is strikingly robust to E. aedis infection, as we observed no significant effect on alpha or beta diversity, differential abundance of any taxa, predicted metabolic function profile, or overall bacterial load. The data show that E. aedis, despite dramatically impacting the health and fitness of the adult female mosquito, does not affect the microbiota. These results provide unique insight into tripartite relationships (or lack thereof) between hosts, pathogens, and the microbiota.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2023

Temporally dynamic effects of adult diet on resistance and tolerance to bacterial infection in Aedes aegypti

Immune defense is comprised of 1) resistance: the ability to reduce pathogen load, and 2) tolerance: the ability to limit the disease severity induced by a given pathogen load. The study of tolerance in the field of animal immunity is fairly nascent in comparison to resistance. Consequently, studies which examine immune defense comprehensively (i.e., considering both resistance and tolerance in conjunction) are uncommon, despite their exigency in achieving a thorough understanding of immune defense. Furthermore, understanding tolerance in arthropod disease vectors is uniquely relevant, as tolerance is essential to the cyclical transmission of pathogens by arthropods. Here, we tested the effect(s) of dietary sucrose concentration (high or low) and blood meal (present or absent) on resistance and tolerance to Escherichia coli infection in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. Resistance and tolerance were measured concurrently and at multiple timepoints. We found that both blood and sucrose affected resistance. Mosquitoes from the low sugar treatment displayed enhanced resistance at all timepoints post-infection compared to those from the high sugar treatment. Additionally, blood-fed mosquitoes showed enhanced resistance compared to non-blood-fed mosquitoes, but only on day 1 post-infection. Sucrose had no effect on tolerance, but the effect of blood was significant and dynamic across time. Specifically, we show that consuming blood prior to infection ameliorates a temporal decline in tolerance that mosquitoes experience when provided with only sugar meals. Taken together, our findings indicate that different dietary components can have unique and sometimes temporally dynamic impacts on resistance and tolerance. Finally, our findings 1) highlight the value of experimental and analytical frameworks which consider the explicit testing of effects on both resistance and tolerance as separate, but equally important, components of immune defense, and 2) underscore the importance of including a temporal component in studies of immune defense.

immunology↗