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Long-Term Mosquito culture with SkitoSnack, an artificial blood meal replacement.

ABSTRACT: The reliance on blood is a limiting factor for mass rearing of mosquitoes for Sterile-Insect-Technique (SIT) and other mosquito-based control strategies. To solve this problem, we have developed SkitoSnack, a formulated diet for Aedes aegypti (L) mosquitoes, as an alternative for vertebrate blood. Here we addressed the question if long-term yellow fever mosquito culture with SkitoSnack resulted in changed life history traits and fitness of the offspring compared to blood-raised mosquitoes. We also explored if SkitoSnack is suitable to raise Asian tiger mosquitos, Aedes albopictus (L.), and the human bed bug, Cimex lectularius (L). We measured life history traits for 30th generation SkitoSnack-raised Ae. aegypti and 11th generation SkitoSnack-raised Ae. albopictus, and compared them with control mosquitoes raised on blood only. We compared meal preference, flight performance, and reproductive fitness in Ae. aegypti raised on SkitoSnack or blood. We also offered SkitoSnack to bed bug nymphs. We found that long-term culture with SkitoSnack resulted in mosquitoes with similar life history traits compared to bovine blood-raised mosquitoes in both species we studied. Also, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes raised on SkitoSnack had similar flight performance compared to blood raised mosquitoes, were still strongly attracted by human smell and had equal mating success. Minimal feeding occurred in bed bugs. Our results suggest that long-term culture with the blood-meal replacement SkitoSnack results in healthy, fit mosquitoes. Therefore, artificial diets like SkitoSnack can be considered as a viable alternative for vertebrate blood in laboratory mosquito culture as well as for mosquito mass production for Sterile-Insect-Technique mosquito control interventions. SkitoSnack was not suitable to induce engorgement of bed bugs.

SUBMITTER: Kandel Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7523998 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Long-Term Mosquito culture with SkitoSnack, an artificial blood meal replacement.

Kandel Yashoda Y Mitra Soumi S Jimenez Xavier X Rodriguez Stacy D SD Romero Alvaro A Blakely Brittny N BN Cho Sang-Yeon SY Pelzman Charles C Hansen Immo A IA

PLoS neglected tropical diseases 20200917 9

The reliance on blood is a limiting factor for mass rearing of mosquitoes for Sterile-Insect-Technique (SIT) and other mosquito-based control strategies. To solve this problem, we have developed SkitoSnack, a formulated diet for Aedes aegypti (L) mosquitoes, as an alternative for vertebrate blood. Here we addressed the question if long-term yellow fever mosquito culture with SkitoSnack resulted in changed life history traits and fitness of the offspring compared to blood-raised mosquitoes. We al ...[more]

PMID: 32941432

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Project description:Background Formula diets can improve glycemic control or can even induce remission in type 2 diabetes. We hypothesized that especially an individualized intense meal replacement by a low-carbohydrate formula diet with accompanied self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) contributes to long-term improvements in HbA1c, weight, and cardiometabolic risk factors in poorly controlled type 2 diabetes. Methods Type 2 diabetes patients were randomized into either a moderate group (M-group) with two meal replacements/day (n = 160) or a stringent group (S-group) with three meal replacements/day (n = 149) during the first week of intervention (1300?1500 kcal/day). Subsequently, both groups reintroduced a low-carbohydrate lunch based on individual adaption due to SMBG in weeks 2?4. After week 4, breakfast was reintroduced until week 12. During the follow-up period, all of the participants were asked to continue replacing one meal per day until the 52-weeks follow-up. Additionally, an observational control group (n = 100) remained in routine care. Parameters were compared at baseline, after 12 and 52 weeks within and between all of the groups. Results 321 participants (83%) completed the acute meal replacement phase after 12 weeks and 279 participants (72%) the whole intervention after 52 weeks. Both intervention groups achieved improvements in HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, and weight (all p < 0.001) within 12 weeks. However, these results were not significantly different between both of the intervention groups. The estimated treatment difference in HbA1c reduction was (mean (95% confidence interval [CI]) -0.10% with 95% CI [-0.40; 0.21] also (p > 0.05) (S-group vs. M-group) not statistically different after 12 weeks. However, only the S-group showed a clinically relevant improvement in HbA1c of -0.81% [-1.06; -0.55] (p < 0.001) after 52 weeks of follow-up, whereas HbA1c was not statistically different between the M- and control group. Conclusion Individualized meal replacement with SMBG demonstrated beneficial effects on HbA1c and cardiometabolic parameters in type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, the initiation of a weight loss program with one week of full meal replacement (three meals per day) resulted in a clinically relevant long-term HbA1c reduction, as compared to an observational control group that had standard care.

Project description:The southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, is one of the most prevalent vectors of lymphatic filariasis and flavivirus-induced encephalitis. Its vectorial capacity is directly affected by its reproductive feeding behaviors, such as host seeking, blood feeding, resting, and egg laying. In mosquitoes, these gonotrophic behaviors are odor-mediated and regulated following blood feeding. Immediately after a blood meal, female mosquitoes show reduced olfactory responsiveness and flight activity, as they enter a resting state. Insights into antennal chemosensory gene regulation at this time period can provide a foundation to identify targets involved in the state switch between host seeking and resting.This study used quantitative gene expression analyses to explore blood meal induced regulation of chemosensory gene families in the antennae of 6 days post-emergence C. quinquefasciatus females. Improved annotations for multiple chemosensory gene families, and a quantitative differential gene expression analysis between host seeking and 24 h post- blood fed females of the same age, allowed for the detection of transcripts that potentially play a role in the switch from host seeking to resting, in C. quinquefasciatus. The expression profiles of chemosensory genes varied significantly between the two treatments.Annotations for chemosensory gene repertoires in C. quinquefasciatus have been manually curated and corrected for 3' exon choice and transcript length, through sequence and transcriptome analyses. The gene expression analyses identified various molecular components of the peripheral olfactory system in C. quinquefasciatus, including odorant receptors, ionotropic receptors, odorant binding proteins and chemosensory proteins, that are regulated in response to blood feeding, and could be critical for the behavioral switch from host seeking to resting. Functional characterization of these proteins in the future can identify targets essential for the females' gonotrophic behaviors, and can be used to design novel vector control strategies.

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Long-Term Mosquito culture with SkitoSnack, an artificial blood meal replacement.

Publications

Long-Term Mosquito culture with SkitoSnack, an artificial blood meal replacement.

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