Microbial Pathogenesis 147 (2020) 104391 Available online 14 July 2020 0882-4010/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Genetic engineering and bacterial pathogenesis against the vectorial capacity of mosquitoes Muhammad Qasim a, * , Huamei Xiao a, b , Kang He a , Mohamed A.A. Omar a , Feiling Liu a , Sohail Ahmed c , Fei Li a, ** a Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China b College of Life Sciences and Resource Environment, Key Laboratory of Crop Growth and Development Regulation of Jiangxi Province, Yichun University, Yichun, 336000, China c Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Environment safety Pathogenic control Genetic modifcations Disease vectors ABSTRACT Mosquitoes are the main vector of multiple diseases worldwide and transmit viral (malaria, chikungunya, en- cephalitis, yellow fever, as well as dengue fever), as well as bacterial diseases (tularemia). To manage the outbreak of mosquito populations, various management programs include the application of chemicals, followed by biological and genetic control. Here we aimed to focus on the role of bacterial pathogenesis and molecular tactics for the management of mosquitoes and their vectorial capacity. Bacterial pathogenesis and molecular manipulations have a substantial impact on the biology of mosquitoes, and both strategies change the gene expression and regulation of disease vectors. The strategy for genetic modifcation is also proved to be excellent for the management of mosquitoes, which halt the development of population via incompatibility of different sex. Therefore, the purpose of the present discussion is to illustrate the impact of both approaches against the vectorial capacity of mosquitoes. Moreover, it could be helpful to understand the relationship of insect-pathogen and to manage various insect vectors as well as diseases. 1. Introduction Mosquitoes are insect vectors responsible for the transmission of parasitic and viral infections to humans causing lethal diseases ending with death. There are almost 3500 species of mosquitoes throughout the world, and are divided into three subfamilies Toxorhynchitinae, Ano- phelinae and Culicinae (Diptera: Culicidae) [1]. Toxorhynchitinae has only one genus (Toxorhynchites), and is not important because it has proboscis, due to which it is unable to pierce the human skin. However, the other two are medically very important [2,3], and only the genus Anopheles consists of more than 450 species across the globe [4]. Mosquitoes cause diseases like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and encephalitis, leading to deaths due to transfer of pathogens. For instance, malaria alone caused over a million deaths in the world [5–8]. Mosquitoes hemocytes are involved in processes such as phagocytosis, encapsulation and melanization [9,10]. Hemocytes interact with a wide group of pathogens such as protozoan parasites [11–13], bacteria [14, 15], yeast [16,17] and virus [18,19]. Management of mosquitoes is the main scope of this article, in which, we have summarized different control strategies according to species habitat. Mosquito population can be managed if properly surveyed before the application of any strategy, such as oviposition sites because larvae are the most sensitive stage for control of mosquitoes, where the application of certain chemicals is very effective, while inoculation of certain predators and pathogens also be much fruitful. Although, the timing for application of different tactics is too essential for management of mosquitoes. 2. Insect-pathogen interactions Pathogens are causal agents of several diseases, transmitted through saliva by different vectors of animals as well as plants (Table 1). They cause high potential diseases leading to mortality as well as affecting the economy of the countries [20–22]. The vector populations and their * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: cmqasimgill@zju.edu.cn (M. Qasim), lifei18@zju.edu.cn (F. Li). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Microbial Pathogenesis journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/micpath https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104391 Received 4 June 2020; Received in revised form 5 July 2020; Accepted 9 July 2020