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Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)

BACKGROUND: Survival to dry season conditions of sub-Saharan savannahs is a major challenge for insects inhabiting such environments, especially regarding the desiccation threat they are exposed to. While extensive literature about insect seasonality has revealed morphologic, metabolic and physiolog...

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Autores principales: Mamai, Wadaka, Mouline, Karine, Parvy, Jean-Philippe, Le Lannic, Jo, Dabiré, Kounbobr Roch, Ouédraogo, Georges Anicet, Renault, David, Simard, Frederic
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704408/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26739500
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-015-1289-0
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author Mamai, Wadaka
Mouline, Karine
Parvy, Jean-Philippe
Le Lannic, Jo
Dabiré, Kounbobr Roch
Ouédraogo, Georges Anicet
Renault, David
Simard, Frederic
author_facet Mamai, Wadaka
Mouline, Karine
Parvy, Jean-Philippe
Le Lannic, Jo
Dabiré, Kounbobr Roch
Ouédraogo, Georges Anicet
Renault, David
Simard, Frederic
author_sort Mamai, Wadaka
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Survival to dry season conditions of sub-Saharan savannahs is a major challenge for insects inhabiting such environments, especially regarding the desiccation threat they are exposed to. While extensive literature about insect seasonality has revealed morphologic, metabolic and physiological changes in many species, only a few studies have explored the responses following exposure to the stressful dry season conditions in major malaria vectors. Here, we explored morphological changes triggered by exposure to dry season conditions in An. gambiae s.l. mosquitoes by comparing females reared in climatic chambers reflecting environmental conditions found in mosquito habitats during the rainy and dry seasons in a savannah area of Burkina Faso (West Africa). RESULTS: Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal imaging, we revealed significant changes in morphological features of the spiracles in females An. gambiae s.l. exposed to contrasted environmental conditions. Hence, the hairs surrounding the spiracles were thicker in the three species when raised under dry season environmental conditions. The thicker hairs were in some cases totally obstructing spiracular openings. Specific staining provided evidence against contamination by external microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. However, only further analysis would unequivocally rule out the hypothesis of experimental artifact. CONCLUSION: Morphological changes in spiracular features probably help to limit body water loss during desiccating conditions, therefore contributing to insect survival. Differences between species within the An. gambiae complex might therefore reflect different survival strategies used by these species to overcome the detrimental dry season conditions in the wild. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-1289-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-47044082016-01-08 Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa) Mamai, Wadaka Mouline, Karine Parvy, Jean-Philippe Le Lannic, Jo Dabiré, Kounbobr Roch Ouédraogo, Georges Anicet Renault, David Simard, Frederic Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: Survival to dry season conditions of sub-Saharan savannahs is a major challenge for insects inhabiting such environments, especially regarding the desiccation threat they are exposed to. While extensive literature about insect seasonality has revealed morphologic, metabolic and physiological changes in many species, only a few studies have explored the responses following exposure to the stressful dry season conditions in major malaria vectors. Here, we explored morphological changes triggered by exposure to dry season conditions in An. gambiae s.l. mosquitoes by comparing females reared in climatic chambers reflecting environmental conditions found in mosquito habitats during the rainy and dry seasons in a savannah area of Burkina Faso (West Africa). RESULTS: Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal imaging, we revealed significant changes in morphological features of the spiracles in females An. gambiae s.l. exposed to contrasted environmental conditions. Hence, the hairs surrounding the spiracles were thicker in the three species when raised under dry season environmental conditions. The thicker hairs were in some cases totally obstructing spiracular openings. Specific staining provided evidence against contamination by external microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. However, only further analysis would unequivocally rule out the hypothesis of experimental artifact. CONCLUSION: Morphological changes in spiracular features probably help to limit body water loss during desiccating conditions, therefore contributing to insect survival. Differences between species within the An. gambiae complex might therefore reflect different survival strategies used by these species to overcome the detrimental dry season conditions in the wild. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-1289-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2016-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4704408/ /pubmed/26739500 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-015-1289-0 Text en © Mamai et al. 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Mamai, Wadaka
Mouline, Karine
Parvy, Jean-Philippe
Le Lannic, Jo
Dabiré, Kounbobr Roch
Ouédraogo, Georges Anicet
Renault, David
Simard, Frederic
Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
title Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
title_full Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
title_fullStr Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
title_full_unstemmed Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
title_short Morphological changes in the spiracles of Anopheles gambiae s.l (Diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
title_sort morphological changes in the spiracles of anopheles gambiae s.l (diptera) as a response to the dry season conditions in burkina faso (west africa)
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704408/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26739500
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-015-1289-0
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