Microbial communities in Anopheles breeding habitats in malaria-endemic sites in Ghana

Microbial communities in mosquito breeding habitats play a critical role in influencing both oviposition behavior and larval development of mosquitoes. A better understanding of this relationship can be instrumental in developing innovative and sustainable mosquito control strategies. This study investigated the microbial profiles in Anopheles breeding habitats in Ghana. Anopheles larvae densities were assessed using standard dipping methods bi-weekly for a period of 16 weeks. Breeding sites where larvae were consistently found were categorized as productive, while those without larvae were classified as nonproductive. Water was collected from 11 productive and 6 non-productive habitats. In addition, 237 Anopheles larvae from the productive habitats were processed for 16S V1-V3 rRNA sequencing to identify bacterial communities within the breeding habitats. Preliminary 16S rRNA sequence analyses revealed substantial differences in bacterial community composition of larvae from different collection sites, while larvae from the same site exhibited similar bacterial profiles. Bacterial richness was found to be highest in water samples compared to larvae samples. Comparisons of bacterial composition indicated that the classes Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Flavobacteria were common in productive habitats, whereas Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the most abundant classes in non-productive habitats. These findings show that An. gambiae larvae develop in habitats with different bacterial community compositions, and bacterial diversity can be linked to the absence or presence of larvae in the breeding habitats. This research lays the groundwork for identifying specific bacterial taxa that could be targeted for future vector control strategies.