Data from: Wolbachia infection alters the relative abundance of resident bacteria in adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, but not larvae

Insect-symbiont interactions are known to play key roles in host functions and fitness. The common insect endosymbiont Wolbachia can reduce the ability of several human pathogens, including arboviruses and the malaria parasite, to replicate in insect hosts. Wolbachia does not naturally infect Aedes aegypti, the primary vector of dengue virus, but transinfected Ae. aegypti have anti-dengue virus properties and are currently being trialled as a dengue biocontrol strategy. Here, we assess the impact of Wolbachia infection of Ae. aegypti on the microbiome of wild mosquito populations (adults and larvae) collected from release sites in Cairns, Australia, by profiling 16S rRNA gene using next generation sequencing. Our data indicate that Wolbachia reduces the relative abundance of a large proportion of bacterial taxa in Ae. aegypti adults, that is in accordance with the known pathogen-blocking effects of Wolbachia on a variety of bacteria and viruses. In adults, several of the most abundant bacterial genera were found to undergo significant shifts in relative abundance. However, the genera showing the greatest changes in relative abundance in Wolbachia-infected adults represented a low proportion of the total microbiome. In addition, there was little effect of Wolbachia infection on the relative abundance of bacterial taxa in larvae, or on species diversity (accounting for species richness and evenness together) detected in adults or larvae. These results offer insight into the effects of Wolbachia on the Ae. aegypti microbiome in a native setting, an important consideration for field releases of Wolbachia into the population.

昆虫与共生微生物的互作已被证实对宿主功能与适合度发挥关键作用。常见的昆虫内共生体沃尔巴克氏体（Wolbachia）能够降低多种人类病原体——包括虫媒病毒与疟原虫——在昆虫宿主体内的复制能力。沃尔巴克氏体天然并不感染登革病毒的主要传播媒介埃及伊蚊（Aedes aegypti），但经转染的埃及伊蚊具备抗登革病毒特性，目前正作为登革热生物防控策略开展田间试验。本研究通过下一代测序技术对16S核糖体RNA（16S rRNA）基因进行测序分析，评估了沃尔巴克氏体感染对澳大利亚凯恩斯市释放点采集的野生蚊种群（成虫与幼虫）微生物组的影响。我们的数据显示，沃尔巴克氏体可降低埃及伊蚊成虫体内绝大多数细菌类群的相对丰度，这与已知的沃尔巴克氏体对多种细菌与病毒的病原体阻断效应相符。在成虫中，部分丰度最高的细菌属的相对丰度发生了显著变化。然而，在沃尔巴克氏体感染的成虫中，相对丰度变化最显著的菌属仅占总微生物组的极小比例。此外，沃尔巴克氏体感染对幼虫体内细菌类群的相对丰度，以及成虫或幼虫中检测到的物种多样性（同时涵盖物种丰富度与均匀度）几乎无影响。这些结果为探究沃尔巴克氏体在自然生境中对埃及伊蚊微生物组的影响提供了重要见解，也是将沃尔巴克氏体野外释放至蚊种群时需重点考量的因素。