Search

Background: Secondary symbionts of insects include a range of bacteria and fungi that perform various functional roles on their hosts, such as fitness, tolerance to heat stress, susceptibility to insecticides, reproduction. These endosymbionts could have the potential to shape microbial communites and high potential to develop strategies for mosquito-borne disease control. Methodology/Principal findings: The relative frequency and molecular phylogeny of Wolbachia, Microsporidia and Cardinium were determined of phlebotomine sand flies and mosquitoes in two regions from Colombia. Illumina Miseq using the 16S rRNA gene as a biomarker was conducted to examine the microbiota. Different percentages of natural infection by Wolbachia, Cardinium, and Microsporidia in phlebotomines and mosquitoes were detected. Phylogenetic analysis of Wolbachia shows putative new strains of Lutzomyia gomezi (wLgom), Brumptomyia hamata (wBrham), and a putative new group associated with Culex nigripalpus (Cnig) from the Andean region, located in Supergroup A and Supergroup B, respectively. The sequences of Microsporidia were obtained of Pi. pia and Cx. nigripalpus, which are located on phylogeny in the IV clade (terrestrial origin). The Cardinium of Tr. triramula and Ps. shannoni were located in group C next to Culicoides sequences while Cardinium of Mi. cayennensis formed two putative new subgroups of Cardinium in group A. In total were obtained 550 bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) and 189 taxa to the genus level. The microbiota profiles of Sand flies and mosquitoes showed mainly at the phylum level to Proteobacteria (67.6%), Firmicutes (17.9%) and Actinobacteria (7.4%). High percentages of relative abundance for Wolbachia (30%-83%) in Lu. gomezi, Ev. dubitans, Mi. micropyga, Br. hamata, and Cx. nigripalpus were found. ASVs assigned as Microsporidia were found in greater abundance in Pi. pia (23%) and Cx. nigripalpus (11%). An important finding is the detection of Rickettsia in Pi. pia (58,8%) and Bartonella sp. in Cx. nigripalpus. Conclusions/Significance: We found that Wolbachia infection significantly decreased the alpha diversity and negatively impacts the number of taxa on sand flies and Culex nigripalpus. The Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) is consistent, which showed statistically significant differences (PERMANOVA, F = 2.4744; R2 = 0.18363; p-value = 0.007) between the microbiota of sand flies and mosquitoes depending on its origin, host and possibly for the abundance of some endosymbionts (Wolbachia, Rickettsia). Author summary: The secondary endosymbionts can positively influence the metabolism of many compounds essential for the survival of the insect vectors, provide resistance to pathogens and impact susceptibility to insecticides, as also the tolerance to heat stress. We provide information from new records of natural infection of secondary endosymbionts, such as Wolbachia, Cardinium, Microsporidia, Flavobacterium, and Rickettsia in phlebotomine sand flies and mosquitoes from Colombia. An important finding is the detection of Bartonella sp. in Cx. nigripalpus. Clear differences were found in the composition and diversity of microbiota at the intra-specific and interspecific levels in sand flies and Cx. nigripalpus, which may depend in the of the load of natural infection of endosymbionts (as Wolbachia), the geographical distribution and host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Blending cotton gin trash and sesame stalks with corncob enhances CGE. • Increases in rice husk blend ratio negatively affects gasification performance. • The experimental mixture allows the gasification for non-suitable biomass. • Uses of biomass materials for gasification is possible under blend conditions. An experimental characterization of crop residue biomass blends to evaluate their energy potential was conducted using an experimental approach in a commercial scale downdraft gasifier. Corncobs, rice husks, sesame stalks and cotton gin refuse were used to study the effect of mixture proportions on equivalence ratio, gasification temperature, syngas lower heating value (LHV), and cold gas efficiency (CGE). Using an experimental mixture design, thirty-two sample blends were evaluated in an Ankur WBG-30 downdraft gasifier with 30 kg/h feed supply coupled with a syngas purification system, temperature sensors and a gas chromatograph. Syngas composition CO, H 2 , CH 4 , N 2 and CO 2 are presented for each blend. It was found that temperature, syngas composition, syngas lower heating value and cold gas efficiency were negatively affected as the proportion of rice husks in the mixture was increased. It was possible to reach CGE values up to 57.91% and LHV up to 4460 kJ/kg under certain blending conditions. A higher percentages of rice husks caused a considerable increase in the variability of the equivalence ratio resulting in suboptimal gasification conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sand fly Lutzomyia (L.) longipalpis has been implicated as the primary vector of Leishmania infantum , the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis VL. In addition, it has been associated with atypical cutaneous leishmaniasis transmission in the Neotropic and Central America, respectively. The existence of a L. longipalpis complex species has been suggested with important implications for leishmaniasis epidemiology; however, the delimitation of species conforming it remains a topic of controversy. The DNA Barcoding Initiative based on cox1 sequence variation was used to identify the MOTUs in L. longipalpis including previously described L. pseudolongipalpis. The genetic variation was analyzed based on tree and distance methods. Fifty-five haplotypes were obtained from 103 sequences which were assigned to MOTUs, with a clear separation and a high correspondence of individuals to the groups. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis showed eight MOTUs (100% bootstrap) with high genetic divergence (12.6%). Data obtained in the present study suggest that L. longipalpis complex consists of at least 8 lineages that may represent species. It would be desirable perform additional morphological and molecular analysis of L. longipalpis from Colosó (Caribbean ecoregion) considering that specimens from that area were grouped with L. pseudolongipalpis one of the complex species previously described from Venezuela, which has not been registered in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]