Using the Fluorescent Dye, Rhodamine B, to Study Mating Competitiveness in Male Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes. 2021

Irene Li, and Keng Wai Mak, and Jeslyn Wong, and Cheong Huat Tan
Environmental Health Institute, National Environmental Agency.

The success of sterile or incompatible insect technique-based population suppression programs depends on the ability of released males to compete for wild-type females and induce sterility in the target population. Hence, laboratory assessment of male mating competitiveness is essential for evaluating the release strain's fitness before field release. Conventionally, such an assay is performed by determining the proportion of viable eggs produced by the females after being simultaneously exposed to two sets of males (wild-type and release strains) for copulation. However, this process is time-consuming and laborious due to the need to first blood-feed the females for egg production and then hatch and enumerate the hatched eggs to determine egg viability.  Moreover, this method cannot discern the degree of competitiveness between two sterile or Wolbachia-infected mosquito lines as wild-type female mosquitoes will only produce non-viable eggs upon mating with both. To circumvent these limitations, this paper describes a more direct method of measuring male mosquito mating competitiveness in laboratory settings using the fluorescent dye, rhodamine B (RhB), which can be used to mark males by feeding them in sucrose solution containing RhB. After the mating assay, the presence of fluorescing sperms in the spermathecae of a female can be used to determine her mating partner. This method is cost-effective, reduces the experimental time by 90% and allows comparison of mating fitness between two sterile or Wolbachia-infected lines.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D009032 Mosquito Control The reduction or regulation of the population of mosquitoes through chemical, biological, or other means. Control, Mosquito
D005260 Female Females
D005456 Fluorescent Dyes Chemicals that emit light after excitation by light. The wave length of the emitted light is usually longer than that of the incident light. Fluorochromes are substances that cause fluorescence in other substances, i.e., dyes used to mark or label other compounds with fluorescent tags. Flourescent Agent,Fluorescent Dye,Fluorescent Probe,Fluorescent Probes,Fluorochrome,Fluorochromes,Fluorogenic Substrates,Fluorescence Agents,Fluorescent Agents,Fluorogenic Substrate,Agents, Fluorescence,Agents, Fluorescent,Dyes, Fluorescent,Probes, Fluorescent,Substrates, Fluorogenic
D000330 Aedes A genus of mosquitoes (CULICIDAE) frequently found in tropical and subtropical regions. YELLOW FEVER and DENGUE are two of the diseases that can be transmitted by species of this genus. Aede
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D012235 Rhodamines A family of 3,6-di(substituted-amino)-9-benzoate derivatives of xanthene that are used as dyes and as indicators for various metals; also used as fluorescent tracers in histochemistry. Rhodamine
D012726 Sexual Behavior, Animal Sexual activities of animals. Mating Behavior, Animal,Sex Behavior, Animal,Animal Mating Behavior,Animal Mating Behaviors,Animal Sex Behavior,Animal Sex Behaviors,Animal Sexual Behavior,Animal Sexual Behaviors,Mating Behaviors, Animal,Sex Behaviors, Animal,Sexual Behaviors, Animal
D020577 Wolbachia A genus of bacteria which comprises a heterogenous group of gram-negative small rods and coccoid forms associated with arthropods. (From Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, vol 1, 1984)

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