Effect of mosquito larval infection on adult life history traits

 描述（由申请方提供）：蚊子是导致人类和动物疾病的病原体的专性载体。在整个发育过程中，蚊子会经历环境的剧烈变化。卵、幼虫和蛹生活在水生栖息地，以微生物为食，或经常与微生物接触。然而，成虫在陆地栖息地飞行，在那里它们以植物花蜜为食，而雌性则以血液为食。在其生命周期的所有阶段，蚊子都通过其角质层的破裂和进食而暴露于病原体。为了抵抗或限制感染，蚊子对入侵的生物体产生强大的细胞和体液先天免疫反应。虽然已经做了大量的工作来了解蚊子在成虫阶段的免疫反应，但很少有人关注免疫反应在昆虫发育过程中的变化。同样，关于未成熟阶段的感染如何影响所产生的成年人的生物学，我们也知之甚少。拟议的研究旨在填补蚊子生物学中的这些知识空白，主要目标是比较幼虫和成年蚊子的抗菌反应，并确定幼虫感染对成年生活史特征的影响。具体而言，我们建议比较冈比亚按蚊幼虫和成人的抗菌免疫反应的效力和组成，确定幼虫感染对随后的成人感染（包括疟疾）的影响，并确定幼虫感染对成人大小，吸血倾向和繁殖力的影响。该项目将深入了解蚊子如何与病原体相互作用，以及蚊子作为未成熟蚊子所面临的免疫挑战如何影响其携带致病微生物的能力。该项目产生的数据可以帮助开发新的策略来控制蚊媒疾病的传播。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mosquitoes are obligate vectors of pathogens that cause disease in humans and animals. Throughout their development, mosquitoes experience drastic changes in their environment. Eggs, larvae and pupae live in aquatic habitats where they feed on, or are in constant contact with, microorganisms. Adults, however, fly in terrestrial habitats where they feed on plant nectars and, in the case of females, on blood. At all points of their life cycle, mosquitoes are exposed to pathogens through breaches in their cuticle and through feeding. To resist or limit infection, mosquitoes mount powerful cellular and humoral innate immune responses against invading organisms. While a considerable amount of work has been done to understand mosquito immune responses in the adult life stage, little attention has been paid to how immune responses change throughout insect development. Likewise, little is known about how an infection during an immature stage affects the biology of the resultant adult. The proposed research aims to fill these knowledge gaps in mosquito biology, with the primary goals being to compare the antibacterial responses of larval and adult mosquitoes, and determine the effect of larval infection on adult life history traits. Specifically, we propose to compare the potency and composition of the antibacterial immune response of Anopheles gambiae larvae and adults, determine the effect of larval infection on a subsequent adult infection (including malaria), and determine the effect of larval infection on adult size, blood feeding propensity and fecundity. This project will yield significant insight into how mosquitoes interact with pathogens, and into how an immune challenge faced by a mosquito as an immature influences its ability to harbor disease-causing microbes. Data arising from this project could aid in the development of novel strategies to control the spread of mosquito-borne disease.