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

虽然蚊子以吸血著称，但实际上只有少数蚊子以血为食。在许多物种中，雌性和雄性都只以糖浓度变化很大的糖溶液为食。这种蚊子不参与向人类传播病原体，但作为传粉者和其他动物的食物，在生态系统中发挥着重要作用。在少数种类的蚊子中，雌性蚊子已经进化出以动物的血液为食的能力，包括哺乳动物和两栖动物，这些动物的血液在成分和温度上都是不同的。这个项目的目标是通过比较和对比食糖和/或血液的物种，了解蚊子如何应对与摄入不同类型液体相关的生理和生物挑战。通过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过程中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，这个项目的结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如何进化提供初步的了解。该项目将为从HBCUs招募的三名研究生和几名本科生或正在参加现有暑期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学生了解昆虫，并向当地和国际公众传播研究结果。蚊子等病媒昆虫从它们摄入的食物中获取营养，并在此过程中传播导致对人类产生巨大流行病学影响的疾病的病原体。令人惊讶的是，人们对吸血昆虫捕食系统的形式和功能之间的关系知之甚少，因为大多数研究都是围绕病原体传播展开的。在了解蚊子取血的生理和生物力学特征以及从吸食花蜜到吸食血液的进化过渡过程中的适应性方面，人们做的工作要少得多。在此背景下，本提案的目的是理解和阐明与血液和糖溶液摄食相关的生物力学机制和挑战，为理解血液摄食如何进化提供新的功能基础。在这个项目中，研究小组将测试一个假设，即蚊子已经发展出了性别和物种特异性机制，以应对摄入来自不同来源的花蜜和血液所表现出的广泛特性所固有的挑战。将采用一种多学科、融合的方法，采用互补的实验和计算方法来确定蚊子摄入液体差异的生物力学限制和权衡。研究结果将以印刷品、YouTube等互联网资源以及公开演讲的形式传播。研究人员将为K-12学生开发教育资源，并参与现有的项目，将初高中学生从代表性不足的群体带到大学，参与动手科学活动和研讨会。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.