Nutritional sex-specificity on bacterial metabolites during mosquito (Aedes aegypti) development leads to adult sex-ratio distortion.

ABSTRACT: Mosquitoes rely on their microbiota for B vitamin synthesis. We previously found that Aedes aegypti third-instar larvae cleared of their microbiota were impaired in their development, notably due to a lack of folic acid (vitamin B9). In this study, we found that diet supplementation using a cocktail of seven B vitamins did not improve mosquito developmental success, but rather had a significant impact on the sex-ratio of the resulting adults, with an enrichment of female mosquitoes emerging from B vitamin-treated larvae. A transcriptomic analysis of male and female larvae identified some sex-specific regulated genes upon vitamin treatment. When treating germ-free larvae with individual B vitamins, we detected a specific toxic effect related to biotin (vitamin B7) exposure at high concentra

SUBMITTER: Romoli O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11612200 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature