Extracting DNA from Preserved Mosquito Blood Meals

Lawrence E Reeves; Nathan D Burkett-Cadena

doi:10.1101/pdb.prot108291

Extracting DNA from Preserved Mosquito Blood Meals

Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2023 Jul 17. doi: 10.1101/pdb.prot108291. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lawrence E Reeves¹, Nathan D Burkett-Cadena²

Affiliations

¹ University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Entomology and Nematology, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, Vero Beach, Florida 32962, USA lereeves@ufl.edu.
² University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Entomology and Nematology, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, Vero Beach, Florida 32962, USA.

PMID: 37460149
DOI: 10.1101/pdb.prot108291

Abstract

Mosquito species vary in their host associations. Although some species are relative generalists, most specialize, to varying extents, on particular types of host animals. Mosquito host associations are among the most important factors that influence the transmission dynamics of mosquito-vectored pathogens, and understanding these associations can provide insight on how such pathogens move within ecosystems. Characterization of the host associations of mosquito species requires applying blood meal analysis to the largest possible sample size of mosquito blood meals. Processing large samples of mosquito blood meals can be time-consuming, especially when chain-termination sequencing is used, necessitating individual processing of each specimen. Various methods and commercially available kits and products are available for extracting DNA from mosquito blood meals. The hot sodium hydroxide and Tris (HotSHOT) method is a rapid and inexpensive method of DNA extraction that is compatible with the recovery of DNA from mosquito blood meals preserved on QIAcard Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) Classic Cards (FTA cards). FTA cards allow nucleic acids found in blood meals to be preserved easily, even in field conditions. DNA prepared using this method is suitable for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based blood meal analysis.