Data from: Bacterial microbiota assemblage in Aedes albopictus mosquitoes and its impacts on larval development

Interactions between bacterial microbiota and mosquitoes play an important
role in mosquitoes’ capacity to transmit pathogens. However, microbiota
assemblages within mosquitoes and the impact of microbiota in environments
on mosquito development and survival remain unclear. This study examined
microbiota assemblages and the effects of aquatic environment microbiota
on the larval development of the Aedes albopictus mosquito, an important
dengue virus vector. Life table studies have found that reducing bacterial
load in natural aquatic habitats through water filtering and treatment
with antibiotics significantly reduced the larva-to-adult emergence rate.
This finding was consistent in two types of larval habitats
examined—discarded tires and flowerpots, suggesting that bacteria play a
crucial role in larval development. Pyrosequencing of the bacterial 16S
rRNA gene was used to determine the diversity of bacterial communities in
larval habitats and the resulting numbers of mosquitoes under both
laboratory and field conditions. The microbiota profiling identified
common shared bacteria among samples from different years; further studies
are needed to determine whether these bacteria represent a core
microbiota. The highest microbiota diversity was found in aquatic
habitats, followed by mosquito larvae, and the lowest in adult mosquitoes.
Mosquito larvae ingested their bacterial microbiota and nutrients from
aquatic habitats of high microbiota diversity. Taken together, the results
support the observation that Ae. albopictus larvae are able to utilize
diverse bacteria from aquatic habitats, and that live bacteria from
aquatic habitats play an important role in larval mosquito development and
survival. These findings provide new insights into bacteria’s role in
mosquito larval ecology.