Symbiotic control of mosquito borne disease

Abstract

It is well accepted that the symbiotic relationships insects have established with several microorganisms have had a key role in their evolutionary success. Bacterial symbiosis is also prevalent in insects that are efficient disease vectors, and numerous studies have sought to decrypt the basic mechanisms of the host–symbiont relationships and develop ways to control vector borne diseases. ‘Symbiotic control’, a new multifaceted approach that uses symbiotic microorganisms to control insect pests or reduce vector competence, seems particularly promising. Three such approaches currently at the cutting edge are: (1) the disruption of microbial symbionts required by insect pests; (2) the manipulation of symbionts that can express anti-pathogen molecules within the host; and (3) the introduction of endogenous microbes that affect life-span and vector capacity of the new hosts in insect populations. This work reviews current knowledge on microbial symbiosis in mosquitoes that holds promise for development of symbiotic control for mosquito borne diseases.

Keywords:

• Symbiotic control
• Mosquito
• Vector borne diseases

This work was supported by Firb-Ideas (grant RBID082MLZ) and Prin 2009 (grant 2009L27YC8_003), both from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and by the EU-FP7 Capacities-Infrastructure 2008 (grant 228421) to GF. We would like to thank Sheila Beatty for editing the English usage in the manuscript.