BIOMECHANICAL CONSTRAINTS AND TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN SUGAR AND BLOOD FEEDING IN MOSQUITOES

尽管蚊子以吸血著称，但只有少数物种真正以吸血为食。在许多物种中，雌性和雄性都只以含糖量差异很大的糖溶液为食。这种蚊子不参与将病原体传播给人类，但在生态系统中作为传粉者和其他动物的食物发挥着重要作用。在少数蚊子物种中，雌性蚊子进化出了以哺乳动物和两栖动物的血液为食的能力，这些动物的血液成分和温度各不相同。该项目的目标是通过比较和对比食糖和/或吸血的物种，了解蚊子如何应对与摄取不同类型液体相关的物理和生物挑战。通过采取合作和多学科的方法，这项研究将阐明使这些特定物种以血液为食的机制，这是一个具有重大医学和经济意义的话题，因为蚊子可以在吸血期间将导致疟疾和登革热等疾病的病原体传播给人类。总体而言，该项目的成果有望扩大生物力学和病媒生物学领域的知识，并为昆虫的血液摄食系统进化提供初步了解。该项目将为从HBCU招募的三名研究生和几名本科生或参与退出暑期研究项目的几名本科生提供研究经验。研究人员将继续努力让K-12学生了解昆虫，并将结果传播给本地和国际公众。蚊子等病媒昆虫从它们摄取的食物中获取营养，并在此过程中传播导致疾病的病原体，这些疾病对人类人口具有巨大的流行病学影响。令人惊讶的是，人们对吸血昆虫摄食系统中的形态和功能之间的关系知之甚少，因为大多数研究都围绕着病原体的传播展开。在了解蚊子采血的生理和生物力学特征以及蚊子从采蜜到采血的进化转变过程中的适应方面所做的工作要少得多。在此背景下，这项建议的目的是了解和阐明与进食血液和糖溶液相关的生物力学机制和挑战，为了解血液进食是如何进化的提供新的功能基础。在这个项目中，研究团队将检验这样一个假设，即蚊子已经发展出针对性别和物种的机制，以应对通过不同来源的花蜜和血液表现出的广泛特性来摄取液体所固有的挑战。采用多学科融合的方法，采用互补的实验和计算方法，将被用来确定蚊子摄入液体的潜在差异的生物力学约束和权衡。结果将通过印刷品、YouTube等互联网资源和公开演示文稿进行传播。研究人员将为K-12学生开发教育资源，并参与现有的项目，将代表人数不足的群体的初中生和高中生带到大学从事实践科学活动和工作室。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Although mosquitoes are well known for blood-feeding, only a small number of species actually feed on blood. In many species, both females and males feed solely on sugar solutions with widely varying sugar concentrations. Such mosquitoes do not participate in pathogen transmission to humans, but have essential roles in the ecosystem as pollinators and as food for other animals. In a small number of mosquito species, females have evolved the ability to feed on the blood of animals including mammals and amphibians, whose blood varies in composition and temperature. This project’s goal is to understand how mosquitoes cope with the physical and biological challenges associated with ingesting different types of fluids, by comparing and contrasting species that are sugar- and/or blood-feeders. By taking a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, the research will elucidate mechanisms that enable these particular species to feed on blood, a topic of great medical and economic importance, given that mosquitoes can transmit pathogens responsible for diseases such as malaria and dengue to humans during blood feeding. Overall, the results of this project are expected to expand knowledge in the fields of biomechanics and disease vector biology and to provide preliminary understanding of how blood feeding systems evolved in insects. The project will provide research experiences for three graduate students and several undergraduate students recruited from HBCUs or who are participating in exiting summer research programs. The researchers will continue efforts to engage K-12 students in learning about insects and to disseminate results to the public both locally and internationally.Disease-vector insects such as mosquitoes acquire nutrients from the food they ingest and can, in the process, transmit pathogens responsible for diseases that have tremendous epidemiological impacts on human populations. Surprisingly little is known about the relationship between form and function in the feeding systems of blood-sucking insects, as most research effort has revolved around pathogen transmission. Far less work has been done to understand the physiological and biomechanical characteristics of blood feeding and the adaptations associated with the evolutionary transition from nectar feeding to blood feeding in mosquitoes. In this context, the objective of this proposal is to understand and elucidate the biomechanical mechanisms and challenges associated with feeding on both blood and sugar solutions, providing a new functional basis for understanding how blood feeding evolved. In this project, the research team will test the hypothesis that mosquitoes have developed sex- and species-specific mechanisms to deal with the challenges inherent to ingesting fluids across the broad range of properties exhibited by nectar and blood from different sources. A multidisciplinary, convergent approach employing complementary experimental and computational methods will be used to determine the biomechanical constraints and trade-offs underlying differences in fluid ingestion in mosquitoes. Results will be disseminated in print, via internet resources like YouTube, and in public presentations. The researchers will develop educational resources for K-12 students and participate in existing programs that bring middle and high school students from under-represented groups to the university to engage in hands-on science activities and workshops.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.