ANALYSIS OF FOOD PREFERENCES BACTERIAL AND VIRAL DIVERSITY IN CIRCULATING Aedes aegypti POPULATIONS IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF IBAGUE THROUGH METATRANSCRYPTOMICS Genome sequencing and assembly

Background: Aedes aegypti is considered the main arbovirus vector of public health importance. The study and identification of the vector microbiota (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites) are of great importance, since their interactions can be relevant to understanding the vector capacity and carrying out surveillance and control of these arboviruses and other diseases. This work shows the identification of food sources, bacteria, and viruses circulating in A. aegypti populations from the city of Ibague through RNAseq.Methods: Adults of A. aegypti were collected from four communities with a high incidence of medically important arboviruses during the pandemic. From pools of 50 females per commune, RNAseq was performed using the Novaseq 6000 instrument with rRNA depletion. Next, the reads were cleaned to be assembled de novo with Trinity version 2.13 (Grabherr et al., 2011). The identification of food preferences, richness, and abundance of viruses and bacteria was carried out using the BLASTx and BLASTn, Kraken2, and MEGAN6 programs.Results: The feeding hosts for A. aegypti were identified. The bacterial families were determined for each of the locations evaluated, and the diversity comparison between them was carried out. Viral species belonging to the vector were identified, some of which may have implications in vector competition such as Phasi Charoen-like virus.Conclusions: A. aegypti is a highly anthropophilic vector; however, it can also feed on small mammals, birds, and species of livestock importance. Bacterial diversity between localities varies in the composition of bacterial families; additionally, this variability seems to be linked to diet. The core virome in A. aegypti is conserved; The prevalence of arboviruses of public health importance found in this work was zero.