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

蚊子食糖和吸血之间的生物力学限制和权衡

• 批准号: 2114127
• 负责人: Chloé Lahondère
• 金额: $ 103.15万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2114127&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BIOMECHANICAL; CONSTRAINTS; TRADE; OFFS; BETWEEN

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.

虽然蚊子以吸血而闻名，但只有少数物种真正以血液为食。在许多物种中，雌性和雄性都只以糖浓度差异很大的糖溶液为食。这种蚊子不参与向人类传播病原体，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，雌性已经进化出以哺乳动物和两栖动物等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。该项目的目标是了解蚊子如何科普与摄入不同类型的液体相关的物理和生物挑战，通过比较和对比是糖和/或血液饲养者的物种。通过采取合作和多学科的方法，该研究将阐明使这些特定物种以血液为食的机制，这是一个具有重要医学和经济意义的主题，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。总的来说，该项目的结果预计将扩大生物力学和病媒生物学领域的知识，并提供对昆虫吸血系统如何进化的初步了解。该项目将为三名研究生和几名从HBCU招募的本科生或正在参加现有夏季研究项目的本科生提供研究经验。研究人员将继续努力让K-12学生学习昆虫知识，并向当地和国际公众传播研究结果。蚊子等疾病媒介昆虫从它们摄取的食物中获得营养，并在此过程中传播病原体，导致对人类产生巨大流行病学影响的疾病。令人惊讶的是，人们对吸血昆虫摄食系统的形式和功能之间的关系知之甚少，因为大多数研究工作都围绕着病原体的传播。在了解吸血的生理和生物力学特征以及与蚊子从花蜜喂养到吸血的进化过渡相关的适应方面，所做的工作要少得多。在这种情况下，本提案的目的是了解和阐明与血液和糖溶液喂养相关的生物力学机制和挑战，为了解血液喂养如何演变提供新的功能基础。在这个项目中，研究小组将测试一个假设，即蚊子已经开发出性别和物种特异性机制，以应对来自不同来源的花蜜和血液所表现出的广泛特性中的体液固有的挑战。一个多学科的，收敛的方法，采用互补的实验和计算方法，将被用来确定生物力学的限制和权衡的基础上的差异，在蚊子的液体摄入。调查结果将通过印刷品、YouTube等互联网资源以及公开演示的方式传播。研究人员将为K-12学生开发教育资源，并参与现有的项目，将来自代表性不足的群体的初中和高中学生带到大学，参与实践科学活动和研讨会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。