High-throughput detection of eukaryotic parasites and arboviruses in mosquitoes

• Main Authors: Matthew V. Cannon, Haikel N. Bogale, Devika Bhalerao, Kalil Keita, Denka Camara, Yaya Barry, Moussa Keita, Drissa Coulibaly, Abdoulaye K. Kone, Ogobara K. Doumbo, Mahamadou A. Thera, Christopher V. Plowe, Mark A. Travassos, Seth R. Irish, Joshua Yeroshefsky, Jeannine Dorothy, Brian Prendergast, Brandyce St. Laurent, Megan L. Fritz, David Serre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Company of Biologists 2021-07-01
• Series: Biology Open
• Subjects: vector-borne pathogens; eukaryotic parasites; arbovirus; surveillance; zoonosis; emerging pathogens
• Online Access: http://bio.biologists.org/content/10/7/bio058855

Vector-borne pathogens cause many human infectious diseases and are responsible for high mortality and morbidity throughout the world. They can also cause livestock epidemics with dramatic social and economic consequences. Due to its high costs, vector-borne disease surveillance is often limited to current threats, and the investigation of emerging pathogens typically occurs after the reports of clinical cases. Here, we use high-throughput sequencing to detect and identify a wide range of parasites and viruses carried by mosquitoes from Cambodia, Guinea, Mali and the USA. We apply this approach to individual Anopheles mosquitoes as well as pools of mosquitoes captured in traps; and compare the outcomes of this assay when applied to DNA or RNA. We identified known human and animal pathogens and mosquito parasites belonging to a wide range of taxa, as well as DNA sequences from previously uncharacterized organisms. Our results also revealed that analysis of the content of an entire trap could be an efficient approach to monitor and identify rare vector-borne pathogens in large surveillance studies. Overall, we describe a high-throughput and easy-to-customize assay to screen for a wide range of pathogens and efficiently complement current vector-borne disease surveillance approaches.