Data from: Deep sequencing reveals extensive variation in the gut microbiota of wild mosquitoes from Kenya.

The mosquito midgut is a hostile environment that vector-borne parasites must survive in order to be transmitted. Commensal bacteria in the midgut can reduce the ability of mosquitoes to transmit disease, either by having direct anti-parasite effects or by stimulating basal immune responses of the insect host. As different bacteria have different effects on parasite development, the composition of the bacterial community in the mosquito gut is likely to affect the probability of disease transmission. We investigated the diversity of mosquito gut bacteria in the field using 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA to build up a comprehensive picture of the diversity of gut bacteria in 8 mosquito species. We found that mosquito gut typically has a very simple gut microbiota that is dominated by a single bacterial taxon. Although different mosquito species share remarkably similar gut bacteria, individuals in a population are extremely variable and can have little overlap in the bacterial taxa present in their guts. This may be an important factor in causing differences in disease transmission rates within mosquito populations.蚊类中肠是一类严苛的生存环境，媒介寄生生物若要完成传播，必须在此环境中存活。中肠内的共生细菌可通过直接发挥抗寄生虫作用，或是刺激昆虫宿主的基础免疫应答，降低蚊类传播疾病的能力。由于不同细菌对寄生虫发育的影响存在差异，蚊类肠道细菌群落的组成很可能会影响疾病传播的概率。本研究采用16S核糖体RNA（16S rRNA）的454焦磷酸测序（454 pyrosequencing）技术，对野外采集的蚊类肠道细菌多样性展开调查，以全面解析8种蚊类的肠道细菌多样性。研究发现，蚊类肠道通常拥有极为简单的微生物群落，且以单一细菌类群为优势类群。尽管不同蚊种的肠道细菌类群具有显著的相似性，但同一种群内的个体间差异极大，其肠道内的细菌类群重叠度往往极低。这或许是导致蚊类种群内部疾病传播速率存在差异的重要因素。