Differential effects of larval and adult nutrition on female survival, fecundity, and size of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti

Abstract

Background The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is the principal vector of medically-important infectious viruses that cause severe illness such as dengue fever, yellow fever and Zika. The transmission potential of mosquitoes for these arboviruses is largely shaped by their life history traits, such as size, survival and fecundity. These life history traits, to some degree, depend on environmental conditions, such as larval and adult nutrition (e.g., nectar availability). Both these types of nutrition are known to affect the energetic reserves and life history traits of adults, but whether and how nutrition obtained during larval and adult stages have an interactive influence on mosquito life history traits remains largely unknown. Results Here, we experimentally manipulated mosquito diets to create two nutritional levels at larval and adult stages, that is, a high or low amount of larval food (HL or LL) during larval stage, and a good and poor adult food (GA or PA, represents normal or weak concentration of sucrose) during adult stage. We then compared the size, survival and fecundity of female mosquitoes reared from these nutritional regimes. We found that larval and adult nutrition affected size and survival, respectively, without interactions, while both larval and adult nutrition influenced fecundity. There was a positive relationship between fecundity and size. In addition, this positive relationship was not affected by nutrition. Conclusions These findings highlight how larval and adult nutrition differentially influence female mosquito life history traits, suggesting that studies evaluating nutritional effects on vectorial capacity traits should account for environmental variation across life stages.

Nutritional stress compromises mosquito fitness and antiviral immunity but enhances dengue virus infection susceptibility

“…There was an overall negative impact of nutritional stress on life history traits. Nutritional stress experienced during the larval stage negatively impacted adult size, in accordance with previous studies 29,30,31,32 . Furthermore, nutritional stress experienced by larvae and adults, along with the ingestion of an infectious blood meal, signi cantly reduced fecundity.…”

“…Furthermore, nutritional stress experienced by larvae and adults, along with the ingestion of an infectious blood meal, signi cantly reduced fecundity. Similar results were found by Vantaux et al 31 and Yan et al 32 , where mosquitoes reared at lower levels of larval and adult diets laid fewer eggs. DENV infection has previously been shown to negatively affect fecundity in Ae.…”

Characterization of the reproductive tract bacterial microbiota of virgin, mated, and blood-fed Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus females

“…Male-derived seminal fluid proteins, transferred to females along with sperm during mating, induce several of the observed post-mating changes in Aedes mosquitoes [ 9 , 10 ], although female contributions are also likely to be involved as in other insects [ 11 ]. While male-derived gene products are essential for fertility, other factors can alter the fertility of female insects, such as nutritional status [ 12 , 13 ], immune function [ 14 ], male age [ 15 ], body size [ 16 , 17 ], and temperature [ 18 ]. Another factor that can alter fertility is the composition of bacterial microbiota [ 19 – 21 ].…”

Larval habitats of Culicoides ornatus Taylor, 1913 (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) within the mangroves of Darwin Harbour in the wet‐dry tropics of northern Australia

“…If sea temperature was cooler than air temperature during this period, then it would lead to differences in habitat temperature which could account for the differences in adult midge size. Alternatively, differences in larval nutrition between the two habitats could account for the difference in wing length, as nutritional status has been shown to influence wing length and body size in mosquitoes (van Schoor et al 2020;Yan et al 2021) and possibly also does in Culicoides.…”