Infections of Wolbachia may destabilize mosquito population dynamics

JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

卷:428

Article

Telschow, Arndt¹  Grziwotz, Florian¹  Crain, Philip^1,2  Miki, Takeshi³  Mains, James W.^4,5  Sugihara, George⁶  Dobson, Stephen L.^4,5  Hsieh, Chih-hao^3,7 

[1] Westfalian Wilhelms Univ, Inst Evolut & Biodivers, D-48149 Munster, Germany

[2] DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA 50131 USA

[3] Natl Taiwan Univ, Inst Oceanog, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

[4] Univ Kentucky, Dept Entomol, Lexington, KY 40546 USA

[5] MosquitoMate Inc, Lexington, KY 40546 USA

[6] Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA

[7] Natl Taiwan Univ, Inst Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

关键词: Aedes albopictus;    Time series analysis;    S-map;    Population stability;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.05.016

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Recent efforts in controlling mosquito-borne diseases focus on biocontrol strategies that incapacitate pathogens inside mosquitoes by altering the mosquito's microbiome. A case in point is the introduction of Wolbachia into natural mosquito populations in order to eliminate Dengue virus. However, whether this strategy can successfully control vector-borne diseases is debated; particularly, how artificial infection affects population dynamics of hosts remains unclear. Here, we show that natural Wolbachia infections are associated with unstable mosquito population dynamics by contrasting Wolbachia-infected versus uninfected cage populations of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). By analyzing weekly data of adult mosquito abundances, we found that the variability of the infected populations is significantly higher than that of the uninfected. The elevated population variability is explained by increased instability in dynamics, as quantified by system nonlinearity (i.e., state-dependence). In addition, predictability of infected populations is substantially lower. A mathematical model analysis suggests that Wolbachia may alter mosquito population dynamics by modifying larval competition of hosts. These results encourage examination for effects of artificial Wolbachia establishment on mosquito populations, because an enhancement of population variability with reduced predictability could pose challenges in management. Our findings have implications for application of microbiome alterations in biocontrol programs. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free