Background: Knockdown resistance (kdr) is one of the primary resistance mechanisms present in anopheline species. Although this mutation is largely spread across the Anopheles gambiae s.l.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreasing reports of insecticide resistance continue to hamper the gains of vector control strategies in curbing malaria transmission. This makes identifying new insecticide targets or alternative vector control strategies necessary. CLassifier of Essentiality AcRoss EukaRyote (CLEARER), a leave-one-organism-out cross-validation machine learning classifier for essential genes, was used to predict essential genes in Anopheles gambiae and selected predicted genes experimentally validated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDietary fiber has been shown to have multiple health benefits, including a positive effect on longevity and the gut microbiota. In the present study, has been chosen as an model organism to study the health effects of dietary fiber supplementation (DFS). DFS extended the mean half-life of male and female flies, but the absolute lifespan only increased in females.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrobial communities play an important role in the fitness of mosquito hosts. However, the factors shaping microbial communities in wild populations, with regard to interactions among microbial species, are still largely unknown. Previous research has demonstrated that two of the most studied mosquito symbionts, the bacteria and , seem to compete or not compete, depending on the genetic background of the reference mosquito host.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiology (Basel)
November 2023
As highlighted by the 'Global Burden of Disease Study 2019' conducted by the World Health Organization, ensuring fair access to medical care through affordable and targeted treatments remains crucial for an ethical global healthcare system. Given the escalating demand for advanced and urgently needed solutions in regenerative bone procedures, the critical role of biopolymers emerges as a paramount necessity, offering a groundbreaking avenue to address pressing medical needs and revolutionize the landscape of bone regeneration therapies. Polymers emerge as excellent solutions due to their versatility, making them reliable materials for 3D printing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recently, two invasive Aedes mosquito species, Ae. japonicus and Ae. koreicus, are circulating in several European countries posing potential health risks to humans and animals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Malaria transmission occurs when sporozoites are transferred from the salivary glands of anopheline mosquitoes to a human host through the injection of saliva. The need for better understanding, as well as novel modes of inhibiting, this key event in transmission has driven intense study of the protein and miRNA content of saliva. Until now the possibility that mosquito saliva may also contain bacteria has remained an open question despite the well documented presence of a rich microbiome in salivary glands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is shown that bacteria use yeast as a niche for survival in stressful conditions, therefore yeasts may act as temporary or permanent bacterial reservoirs. Endobacteria colonise the fungal vacuole of various osmotolerant yeasts which survive and multiply in sugar-rich sources such as plant nectars. Nectar-associated yeasts are present even in the digestive system of insects and often establish mutualistic symbioses with both hosts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe concept of personalized medicine and overcoming healthcare inequalities have become extremely popular in recent decades. Polymers can support cost reductions, the simplicity of customized printing processes, and possible future wide-scale expansion. Polymers with β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) are well known for their synergy with oral tissues and their ability to induce osteoconductivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(Diptera: Tephritidae) is responsible for extensive damage in agriculture with important economic losses. Several strategies have been proposed to control this insect pest including insecticides and the Sterile Insect Technique. Traditional control methods should be implemented by innovative tools, among which those based on insect symbionts seem very promising.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe emerging distribution of new alien mosquito species was recently described in Europe. In addition to the invasion of , several studies have focused on monitoring and controlling other invasive species, as and . Considering the increasing development of insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, new control strategies, including the use of bacterial host symbionts, are proposed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFstrain F17.12 is a yeast with an antiplasmodial property based on the production of a killer toxin. For its symbiotic association with mosquitoes, it has been proposed for the control of malaria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mosquito microbiota is composed of several lineages of microorganisms whose ecological roles and evolutionary histories have yet to be investigated in depth. Among these microorganisms, bacteria play a prominent role, given their abundance in the gut, reproductive organs, and salivary glands of different mosquito species, while their presence has also been reported in several other insects. Notably, has great potential as a tool for the control of mosquito-borne diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ascomycete yeast is a mutualistic symbiont of different insects, including diptera vectors of diseases. Although fungal symbioses have been so far poorly characterized, the topic is gaining attention as yeast-insect interactions can provide pivotal information on insect biology, such as their environmental adaptation or vectorial capability. We review the symbiosis between and mosquitoes, which implies nutritional and protective functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong the various innovative products obtainable from hemp ( L.) waste biomass originating from different industrial processes, the essential oil (EO) deserves special attention in order to understand its possible application in different fields, such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and botanical insecticides. For the purpose, in the present work, we studied the chemical composition of EOs obtained from different hemp varieties, namely Felina 32 and Carmagnola Selezionata (CS) using monoecious, male, and female inflorescences, and we evaluated their mosquitocidal activities on larvae and pupae of two main malaria vectors, and .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMosquitoes can transmit many infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and lymphatic filariasis. Current mosquito control strategies are failing to reduce the severity of outbreaks that still cause high human morbidity and mortality worldwide. Great expectations have been placed on genetic control methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn mosquitoes, the discovery of the numerous interactions between components of the microbiota and the host immune response opens up the attractive possibility of the development of novel control strategies against mosquito borne diseases. We have focused our attention to , a symbiont of several mosquito vectors who has been proposed as one of the most potential tool for paratransgenic applications; although being extensively characterized, its interactions with the mosquito immune system has never been investigated. Here we report a study aimed at describing the interactions between and the immune system of two vectors of malaria, and .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe yeast has several applications in the food industry due to its antimicrobial potential and wide range of biotechnological properties. In particular, a specific strain of isolated from the malaria mosquito , namely F17.12, was reported to secrete a killer toxin with strong anti-plasmodial effect on different developmental stages of ; therefore, we propose its use in the symbiotic control of malaria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Wickerhamomyces anomalus is a yeast associated with different insects including mosquitoes, where it is proposed to be involved in symbiotic relationships with hosts. Different symbiotic strains of W. anomalus display a killer phenotype mediated by protein toxins with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSymbiosis is now recognized as a driving force in evolution, a role that finds its ultimate expression in the variety of associations bonding insects with microbial symbionts. These associations have contributed to the evolutionary success of insects, with the hosts acquiring the capacity to exploit novel ecological niches, and the symbionts passing from facultative associations to obligate, mutualistic symbioses. In bacterial symbiont of insects, the transition from the free-living life style to mutualistic symbiosis often resulted in a reduction in the genome size, with the generation of the smallest bacterial genomes thus far described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTick-borne diseases are an increasing problem for the community. Ticks harbor a complex microbial population acquired while feeding on a variety of animals. Profiling the bacterial population by 16S rDNA amplification and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis enables detection of the broad spectrum of bacteria that settles in the ticks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is still a lack of studies on fungal microbiota in mosquitoes, compared with the number available on bacterial microbiota. This study reports the identification of yeasts of clinical significance in laboratory mosquito species: Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus, Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti. Among the yeasts isolated, they focused on the opportunistic pathogen Candida parapsilosis, since there is a need to better understand breakthrough candidaemia with resistance to the usual antifungals, which requires careful consideration in the broad-spectrum therapy, as documented in many clinical reports.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Malaria still remains a serious health burden in developing countries, causing more than 1 million deaths annually. Given the lack of an effective vaccine against its major etiological agent, Plasmodium falciparum, and the growing resistance of this parasite to the currently available drugs repertoire and of Anopheles mosquitoes to insecticides, the development of innovative control measures is an imperative to reduce malaria transmission. Paratransgenesis, the modification of symbiotic organisms to deliver anti-pathogen effector molecules, represents a novel strategy against Plasmodium development in mosquito vectors, showing the potential to reduce parasite development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Malaria control strategies are focusing on new approaches, such as the symbiotic control, which consists in the use of microbial symbionts to prevent parasite development in the mosquito gut and to block the transmission of the infection to humans. Several microbes, bacteria and fungi, have been proposed for malaria or other mosquito-borne diseases control strategies. Among these, the yeast Wickerhamomyces anomalus has been recently isolated from the gut of Anopheles mosquitoes, where it releases a natural antimicrobial toxin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Wolbachia is a group of intracellular maternally inherited bacteria infecting a high number of arthropod species. Their presence in different mosquito species has been largely described, but Aedes aegypti, the main vector of Dengue virus, has never been found naturally infected by Wolbachia. Similarly, malaria vectors and other anophelines are normally negative to Wolbachia, with the exception of an African population where these bacteria have recently been detected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF