Diversity and Plasticity in Mosquito Feeding Patterns: A Meta-Analysis of ‘Universal’ DNA Diet Studies

IF 6.3 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Global Ecology and Biogeography Pub Date : 2025-06-19 DOI:10.1111/geb.70077

Meshach Lee, Richard O'Rorke, Nicholas J. Clark, Tamsyn Uren Webster, Konstans Wells

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

Although mosquitoes can have innate preferences for particular blood-meal hosts, their realised feeding patterns on different host species can be modified under climate and land use change with implications for disease spread. Therefore, it is important to understand the niche breadth of vectors and the extent to which shifts in feeding patterns can be predicted.

Location

Global.

Time Period

2000–2019.

Major Taxa Studied

Six prominent disease-vectoring mosquitoes: Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Anopheles funestus, An. gambiae, Culex pipiens, Cx. quinquefasciatus.

Methods

Focusing on blood-meal studies that used ‘universal’ molecular methods with broad taxonomic coverage, we compiled evidence from > 15,600 blood-meals. We estimated mosquito's host niche breadth and we used hierarchical Dirichlet regression models to investigate shifts in feeding patterns among different functional and taxonomic groups of host species in relation to host and environmental factors.

Results

We estimated host ranges of 179–321 species for each of the two Culex mosquitoes and 26–65 species for Aedes mosquitoes, comprising considerably broader host niche breadths than previously anticipated. For the two Anopheles species, we estimated host ranges of 7–29 species. We found some evidence that shifts in feeding patterns among different host functional and taxonomic groups were associated with environmental conditions such as temperature and livestock density, while our results also demonstrate that with the currently available evidence, global predictions of shifts in mosquito feeding patterns are impeded by significant uncertainty.

Main Conclusions

Our global meta-analysis afforded first insights into the shifts of feeding patterns in variable environments, suggesting that host choice is not a simple function of host availability, but contingent on other environmental drivers. Improving resolution and consistency of data gathering and reporting will improve the precision of how blood-meal studies can inform us of present and potential risks of pathogen transmission events.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

蚊子摄食模式的多样性和可塑性：“通用”DNA饮食研究的荟萃分析

尽管蚊子可能对特定的吸血宿主具有先天偏好，但它们对不同宿主物种的实际摄食模式可以在气候和土地利用变化的影响下被改变，从而影响疾病的传播。因此，了解病媒的生态位宽度和可预测的摄食模式变化的程度非常重要。位置全球。时间范围2000-2019年。主要分类群研究了6种主要的病媒蚊子：埃及伊蚊、伊蚊和白纹伊蚊。白纹伊蚊，狐按蚊，安。冈比亚，库蚊，Cx；quinquefasciatus。方法采用具有广泛分类学覆盖的“通用”分子方法进行血粉研究，收集了15600份血粉的证据。我们估计了宿主生态位宽度，并利用层次Dirichlet回归模型研究了不同功能和分类类群的寄主物种摄食模式与寄主和环境因素的关系。结果2种库蚊和伊蚊的寄主范围分别为179 ~ 321种和26 ~ 65种，宿主生态位宽度明显大于预期。2种按蚊的寄主范围为7 ~ 29种。我们发现了一些证据，表明不同宿主功能群和分类群的取食模式变化与温度和牲畜密度等环境条件有关，同时我们的研究结果也表明，根据目前现有的证据，对蚊子取食模式变化的全球预测受到重大不确定性的阻碍。我们的全球荟萃分析首次揭示了不同环境下取食模式的变化，表明寄主选择不是一个简单的寄主可用性函数，而是取决于其他环境驱动因素。提高数据收集和报告的分辨率和一致性将提高血餐研究如何向我们通报病原体传播事件的当前和潜在风险的准确性。

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来源期刊

Global Ecology and Biogeography 环境科学-生态学

CiteScore

12.10

自引率

3.10%

发文量

170

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Global Ecology and Biogeography (GEB) welcomes papers that investigate broad-scale (in space, time and/or taxonomy), general patterns in the organization of ecological systems and assemblages, and the processes that underlie them. In particular, GEB welcomes studies that use macroecological methods, comparative analyses, meta-analyses, reviews, spatial analyses and modelling to arrive at general, conceptual conclusions. Studies in GEB need not be global in spatial extent, but the conclusions and implications of the study must be relevant to ecologists and biogeographers globally, rather than being limited to local areas, or specific taxa. Similarly, GEB is not limited to spatial studies; we are equally interested in the general patterns of nature through time, among taxa (e.g., body sizes, dispersal abilities), through the course of evolution, etc. Further, GEB welcomes papers that investigate general impacts of human activities on ecological systems in accordance with the above criteria.