Project description
Mosquito microbiota as a new target to control mosquito-transmitted diseases
Mosquito-transmitted diseases (MTD), such as malaria, dengue, West Nile, Zika, Usutu and yellow fever, continue to increase globally, representing enormous public health threats. New strategies to control MTD focus on mosquito microbiota. Wolbachia is an intracellular bacterium that infects a high proportion of insects, including mosquitoes, and is the most common reproductive parasite in the biosphere. The EU-funded RosaLind project aims to dissect the mechanisms of interaction between Wolbachia and its mobilome, commensal bacterial communities and pathogens in the mosquitoes to limit pathogen transmission. It will investigate the transformation and expression capacity of the first and newly discovered Wolbachia plasmid element. A successful Wolbachia transformation technology would represent a promising tool to control the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases.
Objective
The burden of mosquito-transmitted diseases such as Plasmodium, Dengue, West Nile, Zika, Usutu, or yellow fever continue to increase globally, representing one of the most significant public health threats. In the context of insecticide resistance concomitant to the absence of an efficient vaccine, new strategies that focus on mosquitos microbiota are being developed. In particular the widespread intracellular bacterium Wolbachia, which can limit pathogen transmission and hijack host reproduction, represents one of the most promising tools to control the transmission of disease. Nevertheless, the genomic variability of Wolbachia and its mobilome, together with its influence on pathogen blocking, in interaction with other symbiotic Life in naturally infected vectors, remains largely unknown. In this project, I plan to dissect the mechanisms of interaction between Wolbachia, commensal (healthy) bacterial communities and pathogens, using cutting-edge omics and molecular approaches.
1.Wolbachia variants: I will use shotgun metagenomes to reconstruct Wolbachia and other symbiotic genomes and investigate the links between Wolbachia genetic variability, density and protection in naturally infected individuals at the organ level. I will explore the extent and potential role of Wolbachia phages in mutualistic traits such as defense through differential expression analyses in native conditions and controlled infection within Culex spp.
2.Midgut microbiota: I will explore the diversity, variability, role, and interaction of midgut symbionts with arboviruses through 16S amplicon sequencing and expression analyses in experimental infections conditions in Culex spp.
3.pWCP: I will investigate the transformation and expression capacity of the first and newly discovered Wolbachia plasmid element. If successful, a Wolbachia transformation technology would represent a new tool for vector control strategies and potentially have a great impact for public health worldwide.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsvaccines
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesethologybiological interactions
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyinvertebrate zoology
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Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
75007 Paris
France