title: Oviposition responses of Aedes mosquitoes to bacterial isolates from attractive bamboo infusions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are vectors of pathogenic viruses that cause major human illnesses including dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya. Both mosquito species are expanding their geographic distributions and now occur worldwide in temperate and tropical climates. Collection of eggs in oviposition traps (ovitraps) is commonly used for monitoring and surveillance of container-inhabiting Aedes populations by public health agencies charged with managing mosquito-transmitted illness. Addition of an organic infusion in these traps increases the number of eggs deposited. Gravid females are guided to ovitraps by volatile chemicals produced from the breakdown of organic matter by microbes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We previously isolated and cultured 14 species of bacteria from attractive experimental infusions, made from the senescent leaves of canebrake bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea). Cultures were grown for 24 h at 28 °C with constant shaking (120 rpm) and cell densities were determined with a hemocytometer. Behavioral responses to single bacterial isolates and to a mix of isolates at different cell densities were evaluated using two-choice sticky-screen bioassay methods with gravid Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In behavioral assays of a mix of 14 bacterial isolates, significantly greater attraction responses were exhibited by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus to bacterial densities of 10(7) and 10(8) cells/mL than to the control medium. When we tested single bacterial isolates, seven isolates (B1, B2, B3, B5, B12, B13 and B14) were significantly attractive to Ae. aegypti, and six isolates (B1, B5, B7, B10, B13 and B14) significantly attracted Ae. albopictus. Among all the isolates tested at three different cell densities, bacterial isolates B1, B5, B13 and B14 were highly attractive to both Aedes species.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show that at specific cell densities, some bacteria significantly influence the attraction of gravid Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus females to potential oviposition sites. Attractive bacterial isolates, when formulated for sustained release of attractants, could be coupled with an ovitrap containing a toxicant to achieve area-wide management of Aedes mosquitoes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA. loganathan_ponnusamy@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Loganathan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ponnusamy
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA. coby@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Coby
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schal
authors.affiliation: Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane Health Sciences Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA. wesson@tulane.edu.
authors.forename: Dawn M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wesson
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA. carella@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Consuelo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arellano
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA. apperson@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Apperson
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D031723:Bambusa / Q000737:chemistry*; D001681:Biological Assay; D005260:Female; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology; D010058:Oviposition / Q000187:drug effects; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts