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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Infectious Agents and Disease
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1464720
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Chagas Disease View all 6 articles

Bacterial microbiota from the gut of Rhodnius ecuadoriensis, vector of Chagas disease in the Ecuadorian Central Coast and Southern Andean regions

Provisionally accepted
Juan F. Villacís Juan F. Villacís 1,2Andrea López-Rosero Andrea López-Rosero 1,2Juan J. Bustillos Juan J. Bustillos 1,2Matías Cadena Matías Cadena 1,2César A. Yumiseva César A. Yumiseva 1,2Mario J. Grijalva Mario J. Grijalva 3Anita G. Villacís Anita G. Villacís 1,2*
  • 1 Centro de Investigación para la Salud en América Latina (CISeAL), Quito, Ecuador
  • 2 Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
  • 3 Infectious and Tropical Disease Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens / Ohio, United States

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

    Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that is transmitted mainly by the feces of infected Triatomines. In Ecuador the main vector is Rhodnius ecuadoriensis which is distributed in several provinces of the country. More than 40% of these insects in the wild have T. cruzi as part of their intestinal microbiota. For this reason, the objective of this research was to characterize the intestinal bacterial microbiota of R. ecuadoriensis. The methodology used was based on the DNA extraction of the intestinal contents from the wild collected insects (adults and nymphs V), as well as the insects maintained at the insectary of the CISeAL. Finally, the samples were analyzed by metagenomics extensions based on the different selected criteria. The intestinal microbiota of R. ecuadoriensis presented a marked divergence between laboratory-raised and wild collected insects. This difference was observed in all stages and was similar between insects from Loja and Manabí. A large loss of microbial symbionts was observed in laboratory-raised insects.

    Keywords: Chagas disease1, Rhodnius ecuadoriensis2, Gut Microbiota3, Trypanosoma cruzi4, Habitats5

    Received: 15 Jul 2024; Accepted: 22 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Villacís, López-Rosero, Bustillos, Cadena, Yumiseva, Grijalva and Villacís. 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: Anita G. Villacís, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

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