Next generation sequencing approach for simultaneous identification of mosquitoes and their blood-meal hosts

Abstract

Interpretive Summary: Females of many mosquito species take blood meals from diverse vertebrate host species. During this process, these females can acquire and subsequently transmit devastating disease-causing agents to humans and animals. Different mosquito species and vertebrate host species differ in their contribution to disease transmission cycle. Therefore, accurate identification of mosquito species and their blood meal hosts is a critical component of mosquito-borne disease surveillance and control. Morphological identification of mosquitoes is possible, but loss of morphological characters in field-collected samples and presence of morphologically identical mosquito species complicates this process. Some mosquitoes also feed on multiple vertebrate host species and conventional molecular approaches for blood meal identification are poorly designed to identify mixed blood meals. We describe a proof-of-concept next-generation sequencing approach (NGS) for simultaneous identification of mosquitoes and their blood meal hosts including mixed blood meals. This approach was effective at identifying mosquito species and their blood meal sources including mixed blood meals. This NGS approach can enhance vector surveillance and control via rapid and accurate identification of mosquito species and potential reservoir hosts.