MOSQUITO MICROBIOMES OF RWANDA: CHARACTERIZING MOSQUITO HOST AND MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES IN THE LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS

Mosquitoes are a complex nuisance around the world, and tropical countries bear the greatest brunt of the burden of mosquito-borne diseases. Rwanda has had success in reducing malaria and some arboviral diseases over the last few years, but still faces challenges to elimination. By building our understanding of in situ mosquito communities in Rwanda at a disturbed, human-occupied site and at a natural, preserved site, we can build our understanding of natural mosquito microbiomes toward the goal of implementing novel microbial control methods. Here, we examined the composition of collected mosquitoes and their microbiomes at two diverse sites using Cytochrome c Oxidase I sequencing and 16S V4 barcode sequencing. The majority of mosquitoes captured and characterized in this study are the first-known record of their species for Rwanda but have been characterized in other nations in East Africa. Beta diversity metrics were significantly different between sampling sites, mosquito genera, and mosquito species, but not between mosquito sexes, catch method, or presumed bloodfed status. Bacteria of interest for arbovirus control, Asaia, Serratia, and Wolbachia, were found in abundance at both sites, but were more prevalent at the disturbed site and varied greatly by species. Additional studies to build our understanding of naturally-formed microbial communities are essential to safely employing microbial control methods and further reducing the burden of mosquito-borne diseases. This Bioproject data includes the microbiome sequences from this project.

蚊虫是全球范围内一类复杂的公共卫生滋扰源，热带国家承受着蚊媒疾病带来的最沉重负担。卢旺达在过去数年中成功降低了疟疾及部分虫媒病毒病的发病率，但在消除这类疾病的进程中仍面临诸多挑战。本研究通过解析卢旺达一处受人类活动干扰的人居位点与一处自然保护位点的原位蚊虫群落，加深对蚊虫自然微生物组的认知，以期实现新型微生物防控手段的落地应用。本研究采用细胞色素c氧化酶亚基I（Cytochrome c Oxidase I）测序与16S V4区域条形码测序技术，对两处不同采样位点的蚊虫及其微生物组组成进行了分析。本研究中捕获并鉴定的多数蚊虫物种为卢旺达境内首次记录的类群，但此前已在东非其他国家完成了物种鉴定工作。β多样性指标在采样位点、蚊虫属及蚊虫物种间存在显著差异，但在蚊虫性别、捕获方法及推测的吸血状态间无显著差异。针对虫媒病毒防控具有应用潜力的细菌类群（如Asaia、Serratia及Wolbachia）在两处采样位点均有大量检出，但在受干扰位点的检出率更高，且在不同蚊虫物种间的分布差异显著。为安全应用微生物防控手段并进一步减轻蚊媒疾病的负担，开展更多研究以深化对自然形成的微生物群落的认知至关重要。本生物项目（Bioproject）数据集包含本研究产生的微生物组测序数据。