Composition and Diversity of the Bacterial Microbiota of Aedes aegypti L.: Field vs. Laboratory Contrasts

We employed next-generation sequencing based on amplicons of the 16S-rRNA gene using Illumina sequencing technology. Our findings revealed that the microbiota of mosquitoes collected in the field exhibited higher alpha and beta diversity levels than laboratory mosquitoes, with statistically significant differences (p <0.001). Furthermore, we observed variations in the relative abundance of bacterial taxa at the phylum, family, and genus levels among mosquito collection sites in the field, as well as between different laboratory environments. Differential abundance analysis using DESeq revealed that bacterial genera such as Acetobacter and Bacillus were predominant in the microbiota of field-collected mosquitoes, whereas Asaia, Cedacea, and Chryseobacterium were predominant in the laboratory microbiota. These findings suggest the potential role of these taxa in the biology of mosquito vectors. Our study contributes to the current understanding of the microbiota associated with Ae. aegypti, the primary vector of dengue virus (DENV).