Haematophagy is costly: respiratory patterns and metabolism during feeding in Rhodnius prolixus

Metabolic rate does not scale with body size or activity in some tick species

Respiration in ticks is highly efficient and exceptionally low. Ticks can survive years between bloodmeals by having low activity and respiration to conserve energetic resources. Our objective was to compare metabolic (VCO2) and activity rates across 6 tick species. We predicted that VCO2 would be different among species and scale linearly with activity and body mass. Activity and CO2 production were measured for 32 h in 6 tick species: Dermacentor andersoni, D. variabilis, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, R. microplus, and R. sanguineus. Individual ticks were measured for 30 min three times to ensure breathing occurred. Absolute and mass-specific VCO2, total activity, body mass, and ventilation patterns were compared among species. As expected, ticks did not always breathe during the 30-minute measurements, especially R. sanguineus. Ventilation patterns differed among species with R. microplus having primarily cyclic patterns and R. appendiculatus having discontinuous gas exchange. VCO2 did not scale with body mass in most species. Haemaphysalis longicornis and R. sanguineus had the lowest VCO2; however, H. longicornis was the second most active species. Life history, including questing behavior and range expansion, could be contributing to differences between species. For instance, H. longicornis had exceptionally low metabolic rates despite above average activity levels, suggesting an energetic advantage which may underlie recently documented range expansions in North America. Our results demonstrate how ticks utilize energetic resources to maximize longevity. Future research describing questing behavior and distribution modeling may help explain differences in metabolic rates and activity and impacts on life history traits.

Surfactants alter mosquito's flight and physical condition

Mosquitoes carry lethal pathogens for humans and hundreds of thousands of people are killed by mosquito-borne diseases every year. Therefore, controlling mosquitoes is essential to protect the lives of people around the world. Insecticides are highly effective in controlling mosquitoes and have been used extensively worldwide. However, they have potentially harmful effects on biodiversity and environment, and some mosquitoes are resistant to insecticide ingredients and survive upon their application. Therefore, there is a demand for a method to control mosquitoes without using conventional insecticide ingredients. Here, we used Aedes albopictus to test whether solutions with low surface tension, particularly surfactant solutions can alter mosquito behavior by spreading over the hydrophobic cuticle of mosquitoes. We found that solutions with low surface tension indeed attached to mosquitoes flying or resting on the wall, and made them fall. In addition, solutions with yet lower surface tension covered the mosquito surface more quickly and widely, knocking down or killing mosquitoes. These results suggest that surfactants such as sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate can be used to alter mosquito behavior without relying on conventional insecticides.

Why Do Insects Close Their Spiracles? A Meta-Analytic Evaluation of the Adaptive Hypothesis of Discontinuous Gas Exchange in Insects

Simple Summary

Insects breathe with the aid of thin capillary tubes that open out to the exterior of their body as spiracles. These spiracles are often modulated in a rhythmic gas pattern known as the discontinuous gas exchange cycle. During this cycle, spiracles are either firmly shut to allow no gaseous exchange or slightly open/fully open to allow for gaseous exchange. Two explanations are put forward to rationalize this process, namely, the rhythmic pattern is to (1) reduce water loss or (2) facilitate gaseous exchange in environments with high carbon dioxide and low oxygen. Interestingly, certain insects (such as some desert insects) do not use this rhythmic pattern where it would have been most beneficial and logical. Such an observation has led to the questioning of the explanations of the discontinuous gas exchange cycle. Consequently, we attempt to resolve this controversy by conducting a meta-analysis by synthesizing apposite data from across all insects where a discontinuous gas exchange cycle has been reported. A meta-analysis allows for a shift from viewing data through the lens of a single species to an order view. Thus, our goal is to use this holistic view of data to examine the explanations of the discontinuous gas exchange cycle across multiple groups of insects.

Abstract

The earliest description of the discontinuous gas exchange cycle (DGC) in lepidopterous insects supported the hypothesis that the DGC serves to reduce water loss (hygric hypothesis) and facilitate gaseous exchange in hyperoxia/hypoxia (chthonic hypothesis). With technological advances, other insect orders were investigated, and both hypotheses were questioned. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the merit of both hypotheses. This included 46 insect species in 24 families across nine orders. We also quantified the percent change in metabolic rates per °C change of temperature during the DGC. The DGC reduced water loss (−3.27 ± 0.88; estimate ± 95% confidence limits [95% CI]; p < 0.0001) in insects. However, the DGC does not favor gaseous exchange in hyperoxia (0.21 ± 0.25 [estimate ± 95% CI]; p = 0.12) nor hypoxia, but did favor gaseous exchange in normoxia (0.27 ± 0.26 [estimate ± 95% CI]; p = 0.04). After accounting for variation associated with order, family, and species, a phylogenetic model reflected that metabolic rate exhibited a significant, non-zero increase of 8.13% (± 3.48 95% CI; p < 0.0001) per °C increase in temperature. These data represent the first meta-analytic attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding the merit of adaptive hypotheses in insects.

Blood as fuel: the metabolic cost of pedestrian locomotion in Rhodnius prolixus

Active searching for vertebrate blood is a necessary activity for haematophagous insects, and it can be assumed that this search should also be costly in terms of energetic expenditure. Whether by swimming, walking, running or flying, active movement requires energy, increasing metabolic rate relative to resting situations. We analysed the respiratory pattern and energetic cost of pedestrian locomotion in the blood-sucking bug Rhodnius prolixus using flow-through respirometry, by measuring carbon dioxide emission and water loss before, during and after walking. We observed an increase in the metabolic rate during walking as compared with resting of up to 1.7-fold in male R. prolixus and 1.5-fold in females, as well as a change in their respiratory pattern, which switched from cyclic during rest to continuous when the insects started to walk, remaining in this condition during locomotion and for several minutes after stopping. Walking induced a significant loss of mass in both males and females. This can be explained by an increase in both metabolic rate and water loss during walking. These data constitute the first metabolic measures of active haematophagous insects and provide the first insights into the energetic expenditure associated with the active search for blood in this group.

Studies on gas exchange in the meadow spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius: the metabolic cost of feeding on, and living in, xylem sap

Spittlebugs (superfamily Cercopoidea) live within a mass of frothy, spittle-like foam that is produced as a by-product of their xylem-feeding habits. The wet spittle represents a unique respiratory environment for an insect, potentially acting either as a reserve of trapped oxygen (O₂) or as a significant barrier to O₂ diffusion from the surrounding atmosphere. Feeding on xylem sap under tension is also assumed to be energetically expensive, potentially placing further constraints on their gas exchange. To understand the respiratory strategies used by spittlebugs, this study measured the P _O2  within the spittle of the meadow spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius, as well as the non-feeding metabolic rate (RMR) and respiratory quotient (RQ) of both nymphs and adults. The metabolic rate of nymphs feeding on xylem was also measured. In separate experiments, the ability of a nymph to obtain O₂ from bubbles while submerged in foam was determined using a glass microscope slide coated in an O₂-sensitive fluorophore. We determined that P. spumarius breathes atmospheric O₂ by extending the tip of its abdomen outside of its spittle, rather than respiring the O₂ trapped in air bubbles within the foam. However, spittlebugs can temporarily use these air bubbles to breathe when forcibly submerged. V̇ _O2  and V̇ _CO2  did not differ statistically within life stages, giving a RQ of 0.92 for nymphs and 0.95 for adults. Feeding on xylem was found to increase the nymphs' V̇ _CO2  by only 20% above their RMR. From this cost of feeding, cibarial pump pressures were estimated to be between -0.05 and -0.26 MPa.

Adaptations in energy metabolism and gene family expansions revealed by comparative transcriptomics of three Chagas disease triatomine vectors

Background

Chagas disease is a parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. It is an important public health problem affecting around seven to eight million people in the Americas. A large number of hematophagous triatomine insect species, occupying diverse natural and human-modified ecological niches transmit this disease. Triatomines are long-living hemipterans that have evolved to explode different habitats to associate with their vertebrate hosts. Understanding the molecular basis of the extreme physiological conditions including starvation tolerance and longevity could provide insights for developing novel control strategies. We describe the normalized cDNA, full body transcriptome analysis of three main vectors in North, Central and South America, Triatoma pallidipennis, T. dimidiata and T. infestans.

Results

Two-thirds of the de novo assembled transcriptomes map to the Rhodnius prolixus genome and proteome. A Triatoma expansion of the calycin family and two types of protease inhibitors, pacifastins and cystatins were identified. A high number of transcriptionally active class I transposable elements was documented in T. infestans, compared with T. dimidiata and T. pallidipennis. Sequence identity in Triatoma-R. prolixus 1:1 orthologs revealed high sequence divergence in four enzymes participating in gluconeogenesis, glycogen synthesis and the pentose phosphate pathway, indicating high evolutionary rates of these genes. Also, molecular evidence suggesting positive selection was found for several genes of the oxidative phosphorylation I, III and V complexes.

Conclusions

Protease inhibitors and calycin-coding gene expansions provide insights into rapidly evolving processes of protease regulation and haematophagy. Higher evolutionary rates in enzymes that exert metabolic flux control towards anabolism and evidence for positive selection in oxidative phosphorylation complexes might represent genetic adaptations, possibly related to prolonged starvation, oxidative stress tolerance, longevity, and hematophagy and flight reduction. Overall, this work generated novel hypothesis related to biological adaptations to extreme physiological conditions and diverse ecological niches that sustain Chagas disease transmission.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4696-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Countercurrent heat exchange and thermoregulation during blood-feeding in kissing bugs

Blood-sucking insects experience thermal stress at each feeding event on endothermic vertebrates. We used thermography to examine how kissing-bugs Rhodnius prolixus actively protect themselves from overheating. During feeding, these bugs sequester and dissipate the excess heat in their heads while maintaining an abdominal temperature close to ambient. We employed a functional-morphological approach, combining histology, µCT and X-ray-synchrotron imaging to shed light on the way these insects manage the flow of heat across their bodies. The close alignment of the circulatory and ingestion systems, as well as other morphological characteristics, support the existence of a countercurrent heat exchanger in the head of R. prolixus, which decreases the temperature of the ingested blood before it reaches the abdomen. This kind of system has never been described before in the head of an insect. For the first time, we show that countercurrent heat exchange is associated to thermoregulation during blood-feeding.

Many insect species have adopted the blood of birds and mammals as their main or even only food. Yet, blood is not freely available in nature, but it circulates inside vessels hidden under the skin of animals much bigger than the insect and capable of defending themselves from getting bitten. To succeed in getting a meal, blood-sucking insects must be able to feed quickly and take in as much blood as possible. Each time that they do this, a huge amount of warm fluid enters their body in just a few minutes. The blood temperature can be up to 20° or 25°C warmer than the insect itself. Moreover, an insect called a kissing bug may ingest up to 10 times its own weight in only fifteen minutes. The consequence is overheating and potentially harmful thermal stress.

Kissing bugs do not seem to suffer any harmful consequence of taking massive meals from warm-blooded animals. But why? The answer was unexpected: they simply do not warm up when they take a blood meal. However, it was not known how they manage to cool down the ingested blood.

By combining classical methods of studying anatomy with state of the art technologies, Lahondère et al. discovered that kissing bugs possess a sophisticated heat exchanger inside their heads. It works by transferring the heat associated with the ingested blood to the haemolymph (insect blood); these fluids circulate in opposite directions inside ducts that are close to each other in the head.

The discovery of a new system used by insects to cope with thermal stress expands our knowledge of insect physiology and opens new lines of research. The kissing bug heat exchanger could also serve as inspiration for equivalent technological systems. Last but not least, kissing bugs spread the parasites that cause Chagas disease in the Americas. Finding ways to disrupt the heat exchanger could prevent kissing bugs from feeding on blood, and so help to control the spread of disease.

Simplified membrane feeding of bloodsucking triatomines (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Laboratory-reared hematophagous triatomines that are the main vectors of Chagas disease are generally fed on small vertebrates or on blood-filled membrane devices. Such devices allow a large-scale rearing of these vectors without sacrificing host animals but are almost always expensive, fragile, not easily purchased, and usually difficult to use because they need to be sterilized before and carefully cleaned after each feeding. We present here a simple device to feed triatomines that is composed of a circular series of alternating short pieces of stainless steel and silicon tubing connected to a pump that circulates water heated at 50° C in a water bath. An unlubricated condom filled with 50ml of blood, is fixed around each steel tube section and placed onto the screened tops of containers with triatomines. Nymphs and adults access the blood source by climbing a vertical piece of folded filter paper. After feeding, each condom can be easily and safely removed and discarded. This device consists of simple, cheap, safe and robust components that can be easily purchased, assembled and used. Contamination during or after feeding is practically excluded. The technique is successfully used in our Laboratory for almost two years.

Metabolism and gas exchange patterns in Rhodnius prolixus

Insect's metabolic rate and patterns of gas-exchange varies according to different factors such as: species, activity, mass, and temperature among others. One particular striking pattern of gas-exchange in insects is discontinuous gas-exchange cycles, for which many different hypotheses regarding their evolution have been stated. This article does not pretend to be an extensive review on the subject, rather to focus on the work performed on the haematophagous bug Rhodnius prolixus, a model organism used from the mid XX century until present days, with the great influence of Wigglesworth and his students/collaborator's work. I have no doubt that the renovated field of insect gas-exchange has a bright future and will advance at large gaits thank to the help of this model organism, R. prolixus, whose entire genome has recently being unraveled.