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Immunity in Insects pp 179–189Cite as

Manipulating the Mosquito Microbiota to Study Its Function

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Abstract

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are the main vectors of several arboviruses and are commonly used as models in mosquito biology and vector competence studies. The mosquito microbiota has an impact on different aspects of host physiology, including development, immunity, and fecundity, in turn influencing the capability of the mosquito to transmit diseases. The composition of the microbiota is relatively simple in field mosquitoes, and many of its bacterial members are culturable in the laboratory. Being able to manipulate the composition of the mosquito microbiota is essential to effectively investigate its effect on host physiology and vector competence. This protocol describes how to obtain gnotobiotic mosquitoes, i.e., mosquitoes with a known microbiota composition, and how to monitor the effect of a manipulated microbiota on mosquito development.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Verena Kircher and Charles Bobin for preliminary work on protocols, Jean-Géraud Issaly for egg production, Guillaume Lacour for training on wing length measurements, Siegfried Hapfelmeier for sharing of bacterial strain, and Emma Wise for English proofreading of the manuscript. This work is funded by the French Government’s Investissement d’Avenir program, Laboratoire d’Excellence “Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases” (grant no. ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID), and by ANR JCJC Mosmi to MG (grant no. <ANR-18-CE15-0007>).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, Cayenne, French Guiana, France

    Ottavia Romoli & Mathilde Gendrin

  2. Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

    Mathilde Gendrin

Authors
  1. Ottavia Romoli
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  2. Mathilde Gendrin
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ottavia Romoli or Mathilde Gendrin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Federica Sandrelli

  2. Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy

    Gianluca Tettamanti

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Romoli, O., Gendrin, M. (2020). Manipulating the Mosquito Microbiota to Study Its Function. In: Sandrelli, F., Tettamanti, G. (eds) Immunity in Insects. Springer Protocols Handbooks. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0259-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0259-1_11

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-0258-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-0259-1

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