REVIEW article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbial Symbioses
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1656709
This article is part of the Research TopicModulation of Mosquito Microbiome: Implications for Disease ControlView all articles
Microbial Gatekeepers: Midgut Bacteria in Aedes Mosquitoes as Modulators of Arboviral Transmission and Targets for Sustainable Vector Control
Provisionally accepted
Addis Temie Worku1
Andrea Sciarretta2Antonio Guarnieri1Marilina Falcone1Natashia Brancazio1
Awoke Minwuyelet Ayale3Marco Alfio Cutuli1
Getnet Atenafu3Daria Nicolosi4
Marco Colacci2
Delenasaw Yewhalaw5
Roberto Maria Antonio Di Marco4
Giulio Petronio Petronio1*- 1Department of Medicine and Health Sciences Vincenzo Tiberio, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy
- 2Universita degli Studi del Molise Dipartimento Agricoltura Ambiente e Alimenti, Campobasso, Italy
- 3Debre Markos University College of Natural and Computational Science, Debre Markos, Ethiopia
- 4Universita degli Studi di Catania Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco e della Salute, Catania, Italy
- 5Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
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Arboviral diseases such as Dengue virus, Zika virus, Chikungunya virus, and West Nile virus pose significant global public health and economic challenges, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. The absence of effective vaccines and sustainable vector control strategies continues to drive high morbidity and mortality rates. Different phyla of bacteria, including Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, as well as some fungi, were isolated as the gut microbiome of Aedes mosquitoes. Symbiotic bacteria residing in the mosquito midgut can produce antimicrobial compound, stimulate the host immune response, disrupt nutrient pathways critical for pathogen development, and interfere with the pathogen's lifecycle and dissemination. Additionally, these microbes may reduce vector reproduction and shorten the lifespan of both immature and adult mosquitoesstages. Genetically modified symbiotic bacteria can release effector molecules that target pathogens without harming mosquitoes. Advances in genomic and metagenomic tools have deepened our understanding of the mosquito gut microbiome. This review highlights current knowledge of gut bacteria,bacteria and Commentato [AW1]: Rev 6 comment 1
Keywords: Aedes, Gut Microbiota, symbiotic bacteria, Arbovirus, vector control
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Worku, Sciarretta, Guarnieri, Falcone, Brancazio, Ayale, Cutuli, Atenafu, Nicolosi, Colacci, Yewhalaw, Di Marco and Petronio Petronio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Giulio Petronio Petronio, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences Vincenzo Tiberio, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy
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