The Adult Aedes aegypti Bacterial Microbiota is Robust to Infection with the Obligate Microsporidian Parasite Edhazardia aedis.

Ehdazardia aedis infection does not alter the bacterial microbiota of adult female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes despite its detrimental effects on mosquito health.

• Why it matters: Understanding how microsporidian parasites influence mosquito microbiota is important because it sheds light on host-pathogen-microbiota interactions that could impact disease transmission and vector control strategies.
• What they did: High-throughput amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used to analyze the bacterial microbiota of adult female A. aegypti, comparing infected and uninfected mosquitoes.
• The result: The study found no significant differences in alpha or beta diversity, taxa abundance, predicted metabolic functions, or bacterial load between infected and uninfected mosquitoes, indicating microbiota stability despite infection.