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.蚊类中肠是媒介传播寄生虫实现传播过程必须存活的严苛微环境。肠道共生细菌可通过直接发挥抗寄生虫作用，或激活昆虫宿主的基础免疫应答，削弱蚊类的疾病传播能力。鉴于不同细菌对寄生虫发育的调控作用存在差异，蚊类肠道菌群的组成极有可能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种蚊类的肠道细菌群落多样性。研究结果显示，蚊类肠道通常拥有结构极为简化的微生物群落，且以单一细菌类群为优势菌群。尽管不同蚊种的肠道细菌组成具有显著的相似性，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关键影响因素。