A Tandem Metabarcoding and Taxonomic Forensics Approach to Surveillance of Mosquito–Plant Interactions for Culex quinquefasciatus in Florida

TL;DR

This study identifies the plants that Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes feed on in Florida using DNA metabarcoding, providing insights for better mosquito control.

Contribution

The study presents the first statewide survey of plant-mosquito interactions for Culex quinquefasciatus in Florida using DNA metabarcoding.

Findings

Cx. quinquefasciatus feeds on a wide range of cultivated and non-cultivated plants in Florida.

The identified plants matched well with plant vouchers in the respective counties.

The findings could help develop new mosquito control strategies.

Abstract

Sugar is an important nutritional resource for mosquitoes that they often acquire from plants. Mosquito–plant interactions have been proposed as significant drivers of mosquito vector abundance and prevalence of mosquito-borne pathogens. A recent focus on mosquito–plant interactions has used sensitive techniques in molecular biology to screen for plant-specific genes from field-collected mosquitoes to identify plant families, genera, and species. This technique has been underutilized for mosquito species in the United States. Culex quinquefasciatus is a vector of many important pathogens and is found abundantly in Florida. The subject of this study was to produce a list of plants found in Cx. quinquefasciatus adult females using molecular detection of a plant-specific gene, rbcL, and to cross-reference the identified plants to a plant voucher database for the state of Florida. Culex quinquefasciatus were found to use a wide range of plants, including both cultivated and non-cultivated plants, and the majority of the plants had representative vouchers for their respective sampling location. Understanding plant interactions in mosquitoes could be leveraged to develop new control strategies and thus reduce the public risk of mosquito-borne pathogens.

Interactions with plants are an important aspect of mosquito vector biology and ecology because mosquitoes often use plants as nutritional resources. Plant DNA metabarcoding is a recent approach to address this topic. Culex quinquefasciatus is a vector of several important pathogens in Florida and is subject to significant control efforts, but no studies to date have explored what plants they may feed on. We addressed this by conducting a statewide collection of Cx. quinquefasciatus from six Florida counties and subjected them to plant DNA metabarcoding and cross-referenced the identified plants to a Florida state plant voucher database for each sampled county. A total of 30 families and 47 genera were identified. Plants included many that are cultivated and non-cultivated in Florida, including backyard garden produce, grasses, and some invasive species. Concurrence of plant families and genera was generally high in the respective sampled counties based on available plant vouchers. These data provide the first statewide survey of plants associated with Cx. quinquefasciatus in Florida. This information serves as an important basis for confirming plant taxa that are important to Cx. quinquefasciatus, which could translate to the development of better control strategies and tools.

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