Source: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV submitted to
LANDSCAPES TO GENES: A VERTICALLY INTEGRATED APPROACH TO VECTOR BIOLOGY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0231361
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 1, 2012
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2017
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Project Director
Reiskind, M.
Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV
(N/A)
RALEIGH,NC 27695
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
Disease causing pathogens carried by insects are a major threat to the publics health. Understanding how changes in biological and environmental affect and will affect the insects that carry disease can help prevent humans and animals from getting sick. To improve our understanding and prediction of disease, I am studying the factors that determine what mosquito vectors of disease are found where on the landscape. To gain insight into novel control strategies, I am trying to determine the ecological mechanisms underlying those patterns. I will use a variety of approaches to achieve this goal, including the use of new, genetic based technologies. I anticipate the results of this work will help prevent current and future epidemics of human or animal disease carried by mosquitoes, including dengue fever, chikungunya fever, and Rift Valley fever.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7213110107060%
7213110108020%
7223110107020%
Knowledge Area
722 - Zoonotic Diseases and Parasites Affecting Humans; 721 - Insects and Other Pests Affecting Humans;

Subject Of Investigation
3110 - Insects;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 1080 - Genetics;
Goals / Objectives
Objectives: 1. Document the landscape ecology of mosquitoes and test hypotheses of ecological process that may generate landscape patterns. 2. Examine the larval ecology of mosquitoes and how larval ecology influences adult behavior, physiology, abundance and distribution. 3. Collect and analyze genomic data on mosquitoes and connect those data with spatial data. All laboratory work associated with this project will be conducted at North Carolina State University. Field work will be conducted in several locations in the southeastern United States, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Mapping Mosquitoes in the Landscape. I will conduct studies at the landscape scale examining the distribution of mosquitoes. These will be used to make associations between abiotic landscape factors and mosquito distributions. I will also consider biotic interactions, especially with other mosquito species, as functions of landscape distribution. I will use transect approaches across gradients in land-use intensity or type of land use (e.g. urban-farmland). I may also use random point sampling for certain specific applications. Because pathogens are differentially transmitted by different species of mosquitoes, understanding what determines which species we find where is critical to protecting people or animals in the event of an outbreak of disease. Outcomes. The goals of this objective are to generate a fine scale, distributional map of mosquitoes that demonstrates the spatial extent of interaction, to collect individuals with very precise spatial data, to evaluate the impact of land-use, and to compare changes in the distribution of mosquitoes over time, due to changes in climate, land-use or biotic environment. Objective 2:Larval Habitats. One aspect of my research program will examine variation in larval habitats and how that influences adult mosquito characteristics. Examination of larval habitats in the field may also be used to help inform how landscape determines mosquito distribution. Adults that come from larval habitat may be assessed for individual characteristics, including physiology and behavior. Adult Physiology. Individual mosquitoes, generated from various larval environments, may be assessed for a number of physiological outcomes. These include mass, longevity under benign and stressful conditions, fecundity and insemination capacity. All blood feeding will be conducted using artificial methods, avoiding the direct involvement of animals or humans. Adult behavior. In addition to assessing how larval environment influences the physiology of individual mosquitoes, I may also examine impacts on adult behavior. These may include oviposition behavior, sexual behavior and/or host-seeking behavior. Outcomes. Differences in physiological and behavioral characteristics measured between different larval habitats will be compared. Connections between landscape distribution of larval habitats and mosquito species may also be compared. Objective 3: Genetic Approaches. I will begin using genetic data from mosquitoes captured in landscape ecology studies to examine how populations of mosquitoes may be diverging from one another, how habitat interacts with species phylogenies, and how genetic signals reflect landscape distributions. We will use traditional population genetic approaches (gene sequencing, nuclear microsatellites) and next generation approaches (e.g. RADtags, SNPs) to examine the patterns and test phylogeographic hypothesis of species/population history. Outcomes. The ultimate outcomes of this objective are spatially explicit data sets of genomic information. These data will be used to examine the evolutionary history of focal mosquito species, mosquito assemblages, or populations of mosquitoes.

Progress 07/01/12 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:I have communicated findings from this project to fellow scientists at the annual Entomological Society of America meetings in Denver, the North Carolina Mosquito and Vector Control Association, and the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Meeting. I have provided talks to fellow academics at Syracuse University and North Carolina State University, as well as to the public. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I have matriculated one master's student (Carrie de Jesus), who is currently a PhD student at the University of Florida. I have three doctoral students in my laboratory, as well as advising one post-doc. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I am the president of the North Carolina Mosquito and Vector Control Association, which includes the editorship of the newsletter. We publish "lightly" peer reviewed findings from our membership, including my lab. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We generated several important findings. These include general findings about the distribution of mosquito communities to specific findings of containerAedes.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Richards, S.L., Balanay, J.A.G., White, A.V., Hope, J., Vandock, K., Byrd, B.D., and Reiskind, M.H. 2017. Insecticide susceptibility screening against Culex and Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes from the United States. In press at Journal of Medical Entomology.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Richards, S.L., Balanay, J.A.G., Byrd, B.D., Reiskind, M.H., and Styers, D.M. 2017. Regional survey of mosquito control knowledge and usage in North Carolina. In press at Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Cammack, J.A., Reiskind, M.H., Guisewite, L.M., Denning, S.S., and Watson, D.W. 2017. Quantifying pteridines in the heads of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae): A novel approach for forensic entomology. 2017 Forensic Science International 280: 44-48
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. and Hopperstad, K.A. 2017. Gas stations for container breeding larval mosquito surveillance. Journal of Medical Entomology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjx129


Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:I have communicated scientific findings to my fellow scientists at the American Mosquito Control Association meetings, the International Congress of Entomology, and the North Carolina Mosquito and Vector Control Association. I have also provided talks at several universities and colleges. I have provided several outreach talks to interested groups. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I have two PhD students in 2016, as well as a post-doctoralassociate. We also have employed six undergraduates in 2016. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Primarily through scientific meetings, but also through the laboratory web-page. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are in the midst of several experments, which will continue. We will also continue to sample on the landscape.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We finished several manuscripts and published them in the peer-reviewed scientific literature supporting all the goals. We have continued to collect data on the landscape ecology of mosquitoes, testing the hypothesis that neighborhood age affects mosquito assemblages. We have also started a new project in collaboration with scientists at Cornell University and the University of Georgia that examines howlocal larval conditions affectadult transmissionof disease. We have also begun replicating under a variety of conditions studies that were completed in 2016. Finally, we have begun examining genomics of Aedes albopictus, complementary to current work on Aedes aegypti,

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 1. Monaghan, A.J., Morin, C.W., Steinhoff, D.F., Wilhelmi, O., Hayden, M., Quattrochi, D.A., Reiskind, M., Lloyd, A.L., Smith, K., Schmidt, C.A., Scalf, P.E., Ernst, K. 2016. On the seasonal occurrence and abundance of the Zika virus vector Aedes aegypti in the contiguous United States. PLoS Currents 8. doi: 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.50dfc7f46798675fc63e7d7da563da76.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 2. Reiskind, M.H., Griffith, R.H., Janairo, M.S., Hopperstad, K.A. 2016. Mosquitoes of field and forest: the scale of habitat segregation in a diverse mosquito assemblage. Medical and Veterinary Entomology, doi: 10.1111/mve.12193
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 3. Reiskind, M.O.B., Coyle, K., Daniels, H.V., Labadie, P., Reiskind, M.H., Roberts, N.B., Roberts, R.B., Schaff, J., and Vargo, E.L. 2016. Development of a universal double-digest RAD sequencing approach for a group of nonmodel, ecologically and economically important insect and fish taxa. Molecular Ecology Resources doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.12527.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 4. De Jesus, C.M. and Reiskind M.H. 2016. The importance of male body size on sperm uptake and usage, and female fecundity in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Parasites and Vectors 9:447. Doi: 10.1186/s13071-016-1734-8.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 5. Hopperstad, K.A. and Reiskind, M.H. 2016. Recent changes in the local distribution of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) in South Florida, USA. Journal of Medical Entomology 53 (4): 836-842.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 1. De Jesus, C. and Reiskind, M. 2016. Timed observations of precopulatory interactions between Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Proceedings and Papers of the Eighty-fourth Annual Conference of the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California. February 28- March 2, 2016. Pp. 22-27.


Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience includes mosquito control professionals (private and public), academic mosquito biologists, and the citizenry of North Carolina and the United States. Changes/Problems:No major problems to report. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We matriculated one graduate student, Ms. Carrie De Jesus (MS, 2015). Ms. De Jesus is currently employed by the Delta Vector Control Association in Visalia, CA. Ms. Hopperstad has converted to the PhD program, and received funding from the NSF. We have taken a second PhD student, Ms. Meredith Spence. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We presented data at the North Carolina Mosquito and Vector Control Association meetings, the Ecological Society of America Meetings, and attended the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Obj. 1. We will collect a second data set on landscape distribution of mosquitoes in NC in relation to neighborhood age. We will publish a manuscript from our study of pasture/grassland and forest mosquito distribution. We will analyze the data from the neighborhood study collected summer 2015. We will publish the results of our Florida survey work. We will write a second manuscript from our Florida data set. Obj 2. We will analyze and prepare a manuscript for the second behavior and temperature manuscript. We will publish one or two manuscripts on the mating behavior ofAedesmosquitoes. Obj. 3. We will continue processing and characterizingAedes?genomic data.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1.A second data set of landscape ecology and mosquito distributions in NC was generate that tests the hypothesis that neighborhood age determines mosquito assemblage. This was done with a "chronosequence approach" that allowed comparison of different aged neighborhoods while including prior land-use. Also, previous data sets from Florida have been analyzed, and are being written for submission. Objective 2. A second behavior and temperature data set was generated (the first resulted in a publication, Reiskind and Janairo 2015). These data are being analyzed. In addition, another experiment was conducted that examines how food at different larval stages affects adult characteristics. We finished experiments on the mating behavior ofAe. aegyptiandAe. albopictus?. Objective 3. Microsatellites for mosquitoes collected in Florida have been developed and we are generating data. We have also generated genomic data for Aedes aegypti populations.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Masloski, K., Greenwood, C., Reiskind, M. & Payton, M. (2014) Evidence for diet-driven habitat partitioning of melanoplinae and gomphocerinae (orthoptera: Acrididae) along a vegetation gradient in a western oklahoma grassland. Environmental Entomology, 43, 1209-1214.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Paras, K.L., O'Brien, V.A. & Reiskind, M.H. (2014) Comparison of the vector potential of different mosquito species for the transmission of heartworm, dirofilaria immitis, in rural and urban areas in and surrounding stillwater, oklahoma, USA. Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 28, 60-67.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Yee, D.A., Himel, E., Reiskind, M.H. & Vamosi, S.M. (2014) Implications of saline concentrations for the performance and competitive interactions of the mosquitoes aedes aegypti (stegomyia aegypti) and aedes albopictus (stegomyia albopictus). Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 28, 60-69.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. & Janairo, M.S. (2015) Late-instar behavior of aedes aegypti (diptera: Culicidae) larvae in different thermal and nutritive environments. Journal of Medical Entomology, 52, 789-796.


Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience remains mosquito control professionals (public and private), academic researchers in mosquito biology, and the citizenry of North Carolina and the United States. Changes/Problems:Except for the lack of technical help supported by the USDA, we are making adequate progress. We have had no major problems. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In addition to continued training of Ms. Hopperstad, we added a second graduate student, Ms. Carrie De Jesus. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have mentioned the four publications from this year. In addition, we (myself or my students) have attended several state and national level conferences to disseminate our findings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will be analyzing our various data sets and conducting new experiments (or generating further data for objecctive 3)for all three objectives

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. Generated a landscape data set in North Carolina, examining how vegetative edges (grass vs. forest) affect mosquito assemblages. Continued analyses on dataset gathered in year 1 on Florida distributions ofAe. aegyptiandAe. albopictus. 2. Completed experiments on temperature and larval behavior, submitted manuscript. Also conducted larval growth experiments examining changes in nutrition at different instars. Began experiments on how larval environment affects mating. 3. Establish microsatellite markers forAe. aegypti.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: O'Brien, V.A. & Reiskind, M.H. (2013) Host-seeking mosquito distribution in habitat mosaics of southern great plains cross-timbers. Journal of Medical Entomology, 50, 1231-1239.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. & Lounibos, L.P. (2013) Spatial and temporal patterns of abundance of aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus in southern florida. Medical and Veterinary Entomology,39, 251-258.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. & Zarrabi, A.A. (2013) Habitat quality favoured over familiarity: A rejection of natal habitat preference induction in the mosquito aedes albopictus. Ecological Entomology, 38, 96-100.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Starkey, L.A., Panciera, R.J., Paras, K., Allen, K.E., Reiskind, M.H., Reichard, M.V., Johnson, E.M. & Little, S.E. (2013) Genetic diversity of hepatozoon spp. in coyotes from the south-central united states. Journal of Parasitology, 99, 375-378.


Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience:This project's target audience are mosquito control professionals (public or private), other mosquito biologists, and the citizenry of North Carolina and the United States. Changes/Problems:We are mkaing expected progress. It would be great to be moving faster, but this project does not support technical assistance. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has brought in one Master'sstudent, Ms. Kristen Hopperstad. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have had four publications in 2012, but are not ready to disseminate data collected during this period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will analyze the data collected in objective 1, and also collect North Carolina specific data on mosquito landscape ecology. We will continue larval ecology experiments in the lab, the a focus on temperature and food. We will beign a project examining mating behavior inAe. albopictusandAe. aegypti?. We will develop microsatellites for population genetic studies ofAe. aegypti.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. Extensive data set generated of the distribution ofAedes albopictusandAedes aegyptiin south Florida at local and regional scales. Objective 2. Established coloniesofAe. albopictus,Ae. aegypti, andAn. quadrimaculatus. Data collected on how temperature affects larval behavior and adult characteristics. Objective 3. Samples collected from Objective 1 to be used for population genomic analyses.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Reiskind, M.H., Zarrabi, A.A. & Lounibos, L.P. (2012) Effects of combination of leaf resources on competition in container mosquito larvae. Bulletin of Entomological Research, 102, 424-434.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. & Zarrabi, A.A. (2012) Water surface area and depth determine oviposition choice in aedes albopictus (diptera: Culicidae). Journal of Medical Entomology, 49, 71-76.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. & Zarrabi, A.A. (2012) Is bigger really bigger? differential responses to temperature in measures of body size of the mosquito, aedes albopictus. Journal of Insect Physiology, 58, 911-917.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Reiskind, M.H. & Zarrabi, A.A. (2012c) Water surface area and depth determine oviposition choice in aedes albopictus (diptera: Culicidae). Journal of Medical Entomology, 49, 71-76.


Progress 07/01/12 to 09/30/12

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences included public health practicioners, pest control operators, other scientists and the general public. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? I currently have two graduate students (masters level) and I am hoping to add at least one more in the next year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? I have given four invited seminars over the past year. One to the Department of Entomology at Penn State, one to the North Carolina Vector and Mosquito Control Association and two at the Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? I think we are making good progress towards these goals, so we will continue along these trajectories. We are hoping to add a landscape ecology project looking at landscape hetereogeneity in North Carolina and mosquito assemblage, similar to work accomplished in Oklahoma (see products).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Data were collected examining the current distribution ofA. aegyptiandA. albopictus.These data are currently being analyzed with respect to historical data collected in 2006. Cool stuff. 2. We have conducted one of two planned sets of experiments analyzing larval behavior under different food and temperature regimes. Experiments and analysis is on-going. 3. We have a huge data set of genomic data generated by a double-digest restriction enzyme associated dna sequencing approach (ddRADSEQ). Currently we have sequenced selected and control laboratory lines. We have also started using microsatellites to support (1), but will utlimately apply the ddRADSEQ approaches.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Reiskind, M. H., and L. P. Lounibos. 2013. Spatial and temporal patterns of abundance of Aedes aegypti L. (Stegomyia aegypti) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) [Stegomyia albopictus (Skuse)] in southern Florida. Medical and Veterinary Entomology 27 (4): 421-429.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: O'Brien, VA and Reiskind, MH. 2013. Host-Seeking Mosquito Distribution in Habitat Mosaics of Southern Great Plains Cross-Timbers. Journal of Medical Entomology 50 (6): 1231-1239.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Starkey, L. A., M. D. West, A. W. Barrett, J. M. Saucier, T. P. O'Connor, K. L. Paras, M. H. Reiskind, M. V. Reichard, and S. E. Little. 2013. Prevalence of Antibodies to Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia spp. and Ehrlichia spp. in Coyotes (Canis latrans) in Oklahoma and Texas, USA. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 49 (3): 670-673.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Starkey, L. A., R. J. Panciera, K. Paras, K. E. Allen, M. H. Reiskind, M. V. Reichard, E. M. Johnson, and S. E. Little. 2013. Genetic Diversity of Hepatozoon spp. in Coyotes from the South-Central United States. J. Parasitol. 99:375-378.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: eiskind, M. H., and A. A. Zarrabi. 2013. Habitat quality favoured over familiarity: a rejection of natal habitat preference induction in the mosquito Aedes albopictus. Ecol. Entomol. 38:96-100.