Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1522917
This article is part of the Research Topic Sentinels of Health: Advancements in Monitoring and Surveillance of Vector-Borne Diseases in Domestic and Wild Animals and Vectors View all 9 articles

Microbial ecology of sandflies -The correlation between nutrition, Phlebotomus papatasi sandfly development and microbiome

Provisionally accepted
Slavica Vaselek Slavica Vaselek *Bulent Alten Bulent Alten
  • Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The role and the impact of the microbial component on the biology, ecology, and development of sandflies is largely unknown. We evaluated the impact of larval nutrition on laboratory-reared sandflies in correlation to plentiful the abundance of food, light starvation, and food with/without live microbiome, by monitoring the survival and development of immature stages, and the longevity of adult sandflies. Within this study we examined 360 larvae, 116 pupae, and 120 adult flies of Phlebotomus papatasi for the microbial gut content. The data showed that the presence of a live and diverse microbiome plays a role in the development and survival of larvae. The mortality rate of the larvae was higher, and larval developmental was longer for sandflies maintained on microbiome microbiome-depleted medium, in comparison to the larvae fed with medium containing alive and complex microbiome. Actively feeding larvae reduce microbial abundance and diversity of the medium. The microbial content of the larval gut depends on the composition of the rearing medium, indicating a potential attraction to certain bacteria. The microbial content of the pupa gut is was severely diminished, with overall survival of two bacterial species in adult insects -Ochrobactrum intermedium (found in 95% of dissected adults) and Bacillus subtilis (16%). Further microbial studies may aid in developing biological control methods for sandfly larval or adult stages.

    Keywords: Sandfly, Phlebotomus, Bacteria, microbiome, nutrition, development

    Received: 06 Nov 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Vaselek and Alten. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Slavica Vaselek, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.