- MeSH
- Disinfection methods MeSH
- Skin Diseases, Infectious epidemiology microbiology MeSH
- Ectoparasitic Infestations * epidemiology microbiology pathology MeSH
- Insect Bites and Stings MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Sanitation methods MeSH
- Bedbugs microbiology pathogenicity MeSH
- Lice Infestations epidemiology MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
Rearing common bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L.) and other hematophagous insects is essential for basic, medical, and pest-control research. Logistically, acquiring fresh blood can be a challenge, while biologically, the eventual effects of different rearing and blood preparation protocols on bed bug genotype and phenotype pose a risk of biased research results. Using bed bug populations that are either bat- (BL) or human-related (HL), we tested the short- and long-term effects of rearing bugs on live bats or human volunteers, or artificially on CPDA (citrate phosphate dextrose, adenine)-treated blood, measuring meal size, body size, and fertility. We found that artificial feeding did not affect meal size compared with feeding on natural hosts. Long-term rearing across many generations of HL on CPDA-preserved blood led to reduced body size and fertility compared with populations reared on human volunteers. Blood preservatives increased the proportion of sterile eggs even after a single feed. Finally, our results indicated that laboratory reared bed bugs were smaller, regardless of the blood source, than wild bugs. Similar effects of artificial feeding or laboratory rearing alone should be considered in future studies using bed bug cultures to choose an appropriate rearing protocol. With regard to switching between bat and human hosts, HL took smaller meals and BL had lower fertility when fed on bats than when fed on humans. We attribute these results to methodological constrains, specifically the inconsistency of bat feeding, rather than to host specialization. Nevertheless, BL can be easily reared using human blood and artificial feeding systems.
- MeSH
- Chiroptera * MeSH
- Fertility MeSH
- Heteroptera * MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Bedbugs * MeSH
- Feeding Behavior MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
Cimex lectularius, known as the common bed bug, is a widespread hematophagous human ectoparasite and urban pest that is not known to be a vector of any human infectious disease agents. However, few studies in the era of molecular biology have profiled the microorganisms harbored by field populations of bed bugs. The objective of this study was to examine the viruses present in a large sampling of common bed bugs and related bat bugs (Cimex pipistrelle). RNA sequencing was undertaken on an international sampling of > 500 field-collected bugs, and multiple workflows were used to assemble contigs and query these against reference nucleotide databases to identify viral genomes. Shuangao bed bug virus 2, an uncharacterized rhabdovirus previously discovered in Cimex hemipterus from China, was found in several bed bug pools from the USA and Europe, as well as in C. pipistrelle, suggesting that this virus is common among bed bug populations. In addition, Shuangao bed bug virus 1 was detected in a bed bug pool from China, and sequences matching Enterobacteria phage P7 were found in all bed bug pools, indicating the ubiquitous presence of phage-derived elements in the genome of the bed bug or its enterobacterial symbiont. However, viral diversity was low in bed bugs in our study, as no other viral genomes were detected with significant coverage. These results provide evidence against frequent virus infection in bed bugs. Nonetheless, our investigation had several important limitations, and additional studies should be conducted to better understand the prevalence and composition of viruses in bed bugs. Most notably, our study largely focused on insects from urban areas in industrialized nations, thus likely missing infrequent virus infections and those that could occur in rural or tropical environments or developing nations.
- MeSH
- Insect Control MeSH
- Transportation MeSH
- Pest Control MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Bedbugs * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Geographicals
- France MeSH
Sperm metabolism is fundamental to sperm motility and male fertility. Its measurement is still in its infancy, and recommendations do not exist as to whether or how to standardize laboratory procedures. Here, using the sperm of an insect, the common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, we demonstrate that standardization of sperm metabolism is required with respect to the artificial sperm storage medium and a natural medium, the seminal fluid. We used fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) in combination with time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) to quantify sperm metabolism based on the fluorescent properties of autofluorescent coenzymes, NAD(P)H and flavin adenine dinucleotide. Autofluorescence lifetimes (decay times) differ for the free and protein-bound state of the co-enzymes, and their relative contributions to the lifetime signal serve to characterize the metabolic state of cells. We found that artificial storage medium and seminal fluid separately, and additively, affected sperm metabolism. In a medium containing sugars and amino acids (Grace's Insect medium), sperm showed increased glycolysis compared with a commonly used storage medium, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Adding seminal fluid to the sperm additionally increased oxidative phosphorylation, likely reflecting increased energy production of sperm during activation. Our study provides a protocol to measure sperm metabolism independently from motility, stresses that protocol standardizations for sperm measurements should be implemented and, for the first time, demonstrates that seminal fluid alters sperm metabolism. Equivalent protocol standardizations should be imposed on metabolic investigations of human sperm samples.
- MeSH
- Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide * MeSH
- Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton MeSH
- Sperm Motility MeSH
- NADP * MeSH
- Spermatozoa drug effects MeSH
- Bedbugs MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Male MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
