Skin microbiome alters attractiveness to Anopheles mosquitoes

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2024-6-3

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

35410125

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1186/s12866-022-02502-4

URI

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12866-022-02502-4

Authors

Showering A, Martinez J, Benavente ED, Gezan SA, Jones RT, Oke C, Tytheridge S, Pretorius E, Scott D, Allen RL, D'Alessandro U, Lindsay SW, Armour JAL, Pickett J, Logan JG

Journal

BMC microbiology

Year

2022

Keywords:

Anopheles coluzzii, Body odour, Diversity, Human attractiveness, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Repellents, Skin microbiome

BACKGROUND: Some people produce specific body odours that make them more attractive than others to mosquitoes, and consequently are at higher risk of contracting vector-borne diseases. The skin microbiome can break down carbohydrates, fatty acids and peptides on the skin into volatiles that mosquitoes can differentiate. RESULTS: Here, we examined how skin microbiome composition of women differs in relation to level of attractiveness to Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes, to identify volatiles in body odour and metabolic pathways associated with individuals that tend to be poorly-attractive to mosquitoes. We used behavioural assays to measure attractiveness of participants to An. coluzzii mosquitoes, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of the bacteria sampled from the skin and gas chromatography of volatiles in body odour. We found differences in skin microbiome composition between the poorly- and highly-attractive groups, particularly eight Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) belonging to the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes phyla. Staphylococcus 2 ASVs are four times as abundant in the highly-attractive compared to poorly-attractive group. Associations were found between these ASVs and volatiles known to be attractive to Anopheles mosquitoes. Propanoic pathways are enriched in the poorly-attractive participants compared to those found to be highly-attractive. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that variation in attractiveness of people to mosquitoes is related to the composition of the skin microbiota, knowledge that could improve odour-baited traps or other next generation vector control tools.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2024-6-3

Curated date: 2024/05/18

Curator: Aleru Divine

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Subjects

Location of subjects: United Kingdom

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Skin of sole of pes Plantar skin of foot,Skin of plantar part of foot,Skin of sole of foot,Skin of sole of pes,skin of sole of pes

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Taxonomic microbiome measurement Taxonomic microbiome measurement,taxonomic microbiome measurement

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Poorly-attractive group

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Highly-attractive group

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Post-menopausal females, aged between 50 and 90 years, whose skin/body odour were highly attractive to Anopheles mosquitoes.

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 28

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 27

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: raw counts

Statistical test: DESeq2

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: Yes

Alpha Diversity

Faith Phylogenetic diversity, takes into account phylogenetic distance of all taxa identified in a sample: unchanged

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2024-6-3

Curated date: 2024/05/18

Curator: Aleru Divine

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Source: Figure 3

Description: The differential abundance of bacterial genera between attractiveness groups tested using DESEQ2

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Highly-attractive group

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Methylocaldum
Sphingomonas
Staphylococcus

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Signature 2

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Your review change was submitted

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2024-6-3

Curated date: 2024/05/18

Curator: Aleru Divine

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Source: Figure 3

Description: The differential abundance of bacterial genera between attractiveness groups tested using DESEQ2

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Highly-attractive group

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Brevundimonas
Corynebacterium
Limnohabitans
Actinomycetales
Intrasporangiaceae

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine