The increasing incidence of mosquito-borne diseases world-wide highlights the importance of mosquitoes to public health. Problems with mosquito resistance to insecticides, environmental concerns about insecticide use, parasite resistance to drugs, and slow progress in vaccine development indicate that new tools for vector management are badly needed. Development and application of control methods directed at the aquatic, larval stage of mosquitoes (e.g., toxic agents that are ingested by larvae) requires a thorough understanding of the feeding behavior, mechanisms, and food resources of larvae. The links between food and nutrient limitation in larval habitats and impact on larval growth, adult mosquito fitness and production emphasize the importance of larval feeding ecology to adult vectorial capacity. Given these relationships, the specific aims of this proposal are as follows: (1) to characterize the classes of nutrients and food resources available to mosquito larvae in natural habitats (marshes, tree holes, tires); (2) to examine experimentally the relationships between limiting nutrients, microbial biomass and diversity, and surface microlayer water fractions to mosquito growth and adult mosquito production for Aedes triseriatus, and Anopheles guadrimaculatus; (3) to examine the feeding mechanisms and changes in feeding behavior of larval Aedes and Anopheles in response to different food resources and physical factors associated with their natural habitats. The species and habitats we have chosen for study are broadly representative of mosquito-habitat relationships in other settings. Laboratory and field experiments include the following approaches: (1) Chemical and microbiological characterization of foods and nutrients in larval habitats, specifically proteins, essential fatty acids, carbohydrates, carbon and nitrogen, microbial biomass, and microbial diversity; (2) isolation and identification of bacteria (forming mosquito food) from habitats using selective and nonselective media, and modern identification methods based upon BIOLOG (carbon source utilization) and MIDI (fatty acid methyl ester) systems; (3) experimental manipulations of microbial biomass in habitats related to mosquito growth and adult production; (4) experimental supplementation of essential fatty acids and protein to measure mosquito growth responses; (5) importance of the surface microlayers to Anopheles growth; (6) food particle acceptance/rejection thresholds of Anopheles when particle type, size, flavor are varied; (7) microcinematographic and video analysis of hydrodynamics and feeding depth profiles of Anopheles, larvae; and (8) orientation of Aedes larvae to variably distributed food resources.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AI021884-11
Application #
2061637
Study Section
Tropical Medicine and Parasitology Study Section (TMP)
Project Start
1984-12-01
Project End
1997-04-30
Budget Start
1995-05-01
Budget End
1996-04-30
Support Year
11
Fiscal Year
1995
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Michigan State University
Department
Zoology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
193247145
City
East Lansing
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48824
Walker, Edward D (2016) Toxicity of Sulfide and Ammonium to Aedes triseriatus Larvae (Diptera: Culicidae) in Water-Filled Tree Holes and Tires. J Med Entomol 53:577-583
Kaufman, Michael G; Fonseca, Dina M (2014) Invasion biology of Aedes japonicus japonicus (Diptera: Culicidae). Annu Rev Entomol 59:31-49
Kaufman, Michael G; Stanuszek, William W; Brouhard, Elizabeth A et al. (2012) Establishment of Aedes japonicus japonicus and its colonization of container habitats in Michigan. J Med Entomol 49:1307-17
Hamer, Gabriel L; Donovan, Danielle J; Hood-Nowotny, Rebecca et al. (2012) Evaluation of a stable isotope method to mark naturally-breeding larval mosquitoes for adult dispersal studies. J Med Entomol 49:61-70
Pelz-Stelinski, Kirsten; Kaufman, Michael G; Walker, Edward D (2011) Beetle (Coleoptera: Scirtidae) facilitation of larval mosquito growth in tree hole habitats is linked to multitrophic microbial interactions. Microb Ecol 62:690-703
Pelz-Stelinski, K S; Walker, E D; Kaufman, M G (2010) Senescent leaf exudate increases mosquito survival and microbial activity. Ecol Entomol 35:329-340
Chen, Shicheng; Kaufman, Michael G; Bagdasarian, Michael et al. (2010) Development of an efficient expression system for Flavobacterium strains. Gene 458:1-10
Walker, E D; Kaufman, M G; Merritt, R W (2010) An acute trophic cascade among microorganisms in the tree hole ecosystem following removal of omnivorous mosquito larvae. Community Ecol 11:171-178
Kaufman, Michael G; Pelz-Stelinski, Kirsten S; Yee, Donald A et al. (2010) Stable Isotope Analysis Reveals Detrital Resource Base Sources of the Tree Hole Mosquito, Aedes triseriatus. Ecol Entomol 35:586-593
Loss, Scott R; Hamer, Gabriel L; Goldberg, Tony L et al. (2009) Nestling passerines are not important hosts for amplification of West Nile Virus in Chicago, Illinois. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 9:13-8

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