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Temperature Fluctuations Affect Population Growth Rate of Dengue Mosquito
The PLOS ONE journal published “Effects of Fluctuating Daily Temperatures at Critical Thermal Extremes on Aedes aegypti Life-History Traits," written by lead author Lauren Carrington and four other scientists from Thomas Scott’s Mosquito Research Laboratory and the Center for Vectorborne Diseases (CVEC).
Their work analyzed how natural temperature fluctuations affect the population growth rate of the dengue mosquito. Basically, temperature effects on larval development time, larval survival and adult reproduction depend on the combination of mean temperature and the magnitude of fluctuations.
“The effect of temperature on insect biology is well understood under constant temperature conditions, but less so under more natural, fluctuation conditions,” said Carrington, who completed her three-year postdoctoral fellowship last December in the Scott lab and continues research projects with the lab. She is now based at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia.
The research is expected to lead to greater accuracy of applications for mosquito surveillance and disease prevention.
“An improved understanding of mosquito responses to natural temperature variation,” Carrington said, “will enhance the effectiveness of vector control strategies, thereby reducing transmission of mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever.” By using constant temperatures, scientists can under- or -over estimate values, she said.
“In the field, mosquitoes, and other insects, are exposed to a constantly changing environment, with fluctuations in temperature throughout the day, every day. In the lab, however, experimental protocols generally try to minimize as much variability as possible, and temperature is often the first element to be standardized.”
Co-authors are Veronica Armijos, Christopher Barker, Louis Lambrechts and Thomas Scott.
Dengue is spread by an infected female Aedes aegypti mosquito, a day-biting, limited flight-range mosquito that prefers human blood to develop its eggs. Dengue is caused by four distinct, but closely related, viruses and the most severe form of disease is life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever or DHF.
Some 500,000 people with severe dengue are hospitalized each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and about 2.5 percent of those affected die.
“Dengue takes an enormous toll on human health worldwide, with as many as 4 billion people at risk—half of the world’s population--and 400 million new infections each year,” said Scott, a professor of entomology at UC Davis and active in CVEC.
Dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti. (Photo courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
In Pursuit of the Dengue Mosquito
The target: the dengue mosquito.
The occasion: A UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar.
Jacklyn Wong, who last summer received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, studying with major professor and mosquito expert Tom Scott, will headline the department's first fall seminar.
Wong, now a postdoctoral fellow with the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga., will discuss her research on "Oviposition Site Selection by Aedes aegypti and its Implications for Dengue Control” from 12:10 to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 28 in Briggs Hall.
Her dissertation research, completed in Iquitos, Peru, focused on the egg-laying behavior of Aedes aegypti, the principal mosquito vector of dengue viruses.
A former resident of San Luis Obispo, Wong received her bachelor’s degree in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley in 2001 and her master’s degree in epidemiology from UC Davis in 2006.
Next up in the fall seminar series: On Wednesday, Oct. 5 Judith Becerra, associate research professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, will speak on “Coevolution between Bursera and its Herbivores.”
Then on Wednesday, Oct. 12, the speaker is Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis. She will discuss "The International Cooperative Biodiversity Group Program (ICBG) Rain Forest Expedition to Sulawesi Rainforest.” Kimsey's discovery of a new "warrior wasp" species recently made international news.
Assistant professors Louie Yang and Johanna Chiu have compiled an excellent schedule of speakers. Most will be webcast. See the complete list.
Jacklyn Wong in a canopy just outside of Iquitos, Peru. (Photo by Stephen Yanoviak)
The dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti. (Photo courtesy of James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
