Thermal variation influences the transcriptome of the major malaria vector Anopheles stephensi.

Abstract

The abundance and distribution of ectotherms is being shaped at unprecedented scales by human-induced climate change. Unraveling molecular adaptations to thermal variation is prescient. Vector-borne diseases are of particular concern and although mosquitoes are responsible for most of the 621 million cases annually, their response to temperature is not well characterized. We describe the transcriptome of the major vector for human malaria, Anopheles stephensi maintained under a diurnal temperature regime (DTR) totaling 9{degrees}C and daily means of 20{degrees}C, 24{degrees}C and 28{degrees}C respectively. Gene expression profiles were examined in the midguts and carcasses of adult mosquitoes from one to 19 days post-blood meal. Differences in temporal expression profiles at each temperature revealed a total of 3,106 and 3,590 genes in the carcasses and midguts respectively and analyzed further to make three inferences. First, we identified genes with shared temporal expression profiles across all three temperatures, suggesting their indispensability to mosquito life history. Second, tolerance to 20 DTR 9{degrees}C and 28 DTR 9{degrees}C was associated with a larger and more diverse repertoire of gene products compared to 24 DTR 9{degrees}C; assuming physiological costs scale accordingly, this finding could explain the fitness trade-offs underlying the unimodal effect of temperature. Third, the long duration of our study revealed two general trends in gene expression, representative of a coordinated, tissue- and temperature-specific response to blood meal digestion, managing oxidative stress, and reproduction. Our results suggest how temperature could regulate the mosquitos capacity to transmit Plasmodium parasites and offer a reference point for understanding ectotherm adaptation.