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. 2024 Feb 10;27(3):109194.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109194. eCollection 2024 Mar 15.

Landscape and mosquito community impact the avian Plasmodium infection in Culex pipiens

Martina Ferraguti  1   2 , Josué Martínez-de la Puente  3   2 , Santiago Ruiz  4   2 , Ramón C Soriguer  1   2 , Jordi Figuerola  1   2
Affiliations

Landscape and mosquito community impact the avian Plasmodium infection in Culex pipiens

Martina Ferraguti et al. iScience. .

Abstract

Avian malaria parasites provide an important model for studying host-pathogen interactions, yet understanding their dynamics in vectors under natural conditions is limited. We investigated the effect of vector abundance, species richness and diversity, and habitat characteristics on avian Plasmodium prevalence and lineage richness in Culex pipiens across 45 urban, natural, and rural localities in southern Spain. Analyzing 16,574 mosquitoes grouped in 768 mosquito pools, 32.7% exhibited parasite presence. 13 different Plasmodium lineages were identified, with the lineage SYAT05 being the most commonly found. Parasite prevalence positively correlated with the distance to saltmarshes and rivers, but negatively with the distance to total water source. Parasite lineage diversity was higher in natural than in rural areas and positively correlated with mosquito species richness. These results emphasize the complex dynamics of avian Plasmodium in the wild, with habitat characteristics and vector community driving the parasite transmission by mosquito vectors.

Keywords: Ecology; Microbiology; Microbiology parasite.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Heatmap representing the prevalence of Plasmodium lineages detected in mosquito populations across 45 sampling locations The lineages were labeled according to MalAvi nomenclature and sorted in decreasing order according to the number of infected mosquito pools found, as indicated by the numbers above each column.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relationships between Plasmodium prevalence in Culex pipiens and water and mosquito variables Leverage plot displaying the residuals of the model, accounting for the associations between Plasmodium prevalence in Cx. pipiens at the 45 localities and the distance in meters to the nearest (A) salt marshes, (B) rivers, (C) water sources, and (D) total mosquito abundance. The 95% confidence level interval is shown in gray.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Richness of Plasmodium lineages in Culex pipiens as estimated from a rarefaction curve Median values, error bars, and data points (filled circles) are shown. Habitat categories with statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) are marked with different letters.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Relationships between Plasmodium richness in Culex pipiens and water and mosquito variables Leverage plot displaying the residuals of the model, accounting for the associations between Plasmodium richness of lineages in Cx. pipiens and (A) the distance in meters to the nearest stretch of freshwater and (B) the richness of mosquito species at the 45 localities studied. The 95% confidence level interval is shown in gray.
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