Warmer environmental temperature accelerates aging in mosquitoes, decreasing longevity and worsening infection outcomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Most insects are poikilotherms and ectotherms, so their body temperature is predicated by environmental temperature. With climate change, insect body temperature is rising, which affects how insects develop, survive, and respond to infection. Aging also affects insect physiology by deteriorating body condition and weakening immune proficiency via senescence. Aging is usually considered in terms of time, or chronological age, but it can also be conceptualized in terms of body function, or physiological age. We hypothesized that warmer temperature decouples chronological and physiological age in insects by accelerating senescence. To investigate this, we reared the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, at 27 °C, 30 °C and 32 °C, and measured survival starting at 1-,

SUBMITTER: Barr JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11389126 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature