Biological Adaptations Associated with Dehydration in Mosquitoes

Abstract

Diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes are a tremendous health and socioeconomic burden with hundreds of millions of people being impacted by mosquito-borne illnesses annually. Many factors have been implicated and extensively studied in disease transmission dynamics, but knowledge regarding how dehydration impacts mosquito physiology, behavior, and resulting mosquito-borne disease transmission remain underdeveloped. The lapse in understanding on how mosquitoes respond to dehydration stress likely obscures our ability to effectively study mosquito physiology, behavior, and vectorial capabilities. The goal of this review is to develop a profile of factors underlying mosquito biology that are altered by dehydration and the implications that are related to disease transmission.

Unraveling mosquito metabolism with mass spectrometry-based metabolomics

“…Diapause is well documented in certain mosquito species [42][43][44], but the metabolic regulation of embryonic diapause at the metabolite levels is still an emerging area in mosquito research. Distinct profiles of metabolitesincluding AAs, AA derivatives, OAs, acyl-carnitines (AcCas), nucleic acids, nucleosides, and lipidswere identified by nontargeted LC/MS metabolomics in diapause and non-diapause eggs from Aedes albopictus [45].…”

Plant sugar feeding patterns of wild‐caught Aedes aegypti from dengue endemic and non‐endemic areas of Kenya

“…Several reasons may account for this pattern. Firstly, plant feeding provides not only sugars but also water (Foster, 1995; Holmes & Benoit, 2019) which cushions mosquitoes against risk of desiccation during the dry season (Holmes & Benoit, 2019). Males being obligate plant feeders and consuming relatively smaller meal sizes than females (Foster, 1995; Nunes et al ., 2008), may engage more in plant feeding during such adverse conditions.…”

Local adaptation ofAedes aegyptimosquitoes toWolbachia-induced fitness costs

“…Aedes aegypti is well adapted to anthropogenic environments across the world, that include not only the ability to tolerate pesticides in these environments [1] but also life history strategies that allow it to breed under variable conditions [2]. One adaptation to variable conditions is the ability for its eggs to enter a quiescent stage, where they remain viable for periods without water before hatching following rainfall or human-associated activities that increase water availability [3]. This phenotype is likely to be particularly important in climates with an extended dry season where populations may otherwise not persist [4].…”