Microbial communities and wing variation associated with ectoparasitic mites in medically important Mansonia mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from coconut plantation habitats in central Thailand

Abstract

This study presents the comprehensive assessment of the bacterial microbiome and the effects of ectoparasitic mites on wing morphometry in Mansonia mosquitoes, namely, Ma. annulifera, Ma. indiana, and Ma. uniformis from coconut-growing areas in central Thailand. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene (V3-V4 regions) generated 1,813,140 raw reads. Following quality control with the DADA2 pipeline, including filtering, denoising, merging, and chimera removal, 681,766 non-chimeric sequences were retained across nine libraries, yielding 467 unique amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). Distinct, species-specific bacterial community profiles were identified: Fructobacillus fructosus dominated Ma. annulifera (28.85% relative abundance), whereas Wolbachia was predominant in Ma. indiana (57.94%) and Ma. uniformis (80.87%). Although alpha diversity showed no significant interspecific differences (p > 0.05), beta-diversity analyses revealed clear species-specific clustering. Differential abundance testing further identified Rosenbergiella sp. as a biomarker for Ma. annulifera and Wolbachia sp. as highly enriched in Ma. indiana and Ma. uniformis. Geometric morphometric analysis revealed significant differences in mean centroid size among all mite infestation groups in Ma. annulifera (p < 0.05), but not in Ma. indiana or Ma. uniformis (p > 0.05). Shape analysis indicated that Ma. annulifera differed significantly only between the no-mite and high-intensity groups, Ma. indiana across all pairwise comparisons, and Ma. uniformis between the no-mite and high-intensity groups and between the low- and high-intensity groups (p < 0.05). This study provides new insights into Mansonia microbiome diversity and mite-associated morphological variation, with implications for mosquito ecology and disease transmission.