We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student to join a multidisciplinary project understanding the microbiome of mosquitoes, which are amongst the most important disease-transmitting vectors world-wide and of increasing relevance for the UK in the course of climate change.

The mosquito microbiome is highly relevant for its interaction with viruses and parasites, in particular its ability to get infected by these organisms, and transmit them. Examples include both bacterial species known to enhance infection of the mosquito, and thus pathogen transmission (10.1016/j.chom.2018.11.004), or reduce these (10.1126/science.adf814). Despite its significant role in the mosquito vector as holobiont (comprising the mosquito host and its resident microbiome), we have very limited understanding of what properties lead to bacteria successfully colonising the mosquito and persisting over the developmental changes the host undergoes. Given the complex life cycle of mosquitoes, from larvae and pupation to adult stages, significant changes in microbiome diversity and composition have been described. Until recently, we have however had a very limited understanding of the genomic composition of the mosquito microbiome, as analyses are almost exclusively focused on 16S rRNA gene analysis, which only gives taxonomic but no functional information.

The project will use large-scale sequence analyses of both mosquito symbiont genomes, as well as include broader comparisons to other insect groups, in particular other insect vectors of relevance for disease transmission such as ticks. It will include comparisons with non-mosquito associated isolates and model potential synthetic microbiomes that can be used as reproducible systems for comparative analyses. You will address these overarching questions by several specific aims, such as i) do we see an enrichment in bacterial competition factors like Type 6 secretion systems or toxin-antitoxin systems in successful colonisers, ii) what is the role of secondary metabolites, in particular siderophores and other iron-acquisition systems, in the mosquito microbiome, and iii) can we identify cell surface properties such as adhesins that give indication of association with mosquitoes or other insect hosts.

This project will profit from the long-standing collaboration between Dr Eva Heinz and Prof Grant Hughes (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) who jointly led the establishment of the first large-scale analysis of mosquito-associated bacterial genomes (10.1371/journal.pbio.3002897) and continuing sequencing efforts, and Dr Leighton Pritchard who has long-standing expertise in metabolic pathway modelling. Previous PhD projects have resulted in high-impact first-author outputs including PLoS Biology, Nucleic Acids Research and Microbial Genomics, and publication of software tools in the course of the projects, such as https://github.com/ghoresh11/twilight or https://github.com/aidanfoo96/MINUUR.