Lipidomic change in Aedes aegypti female following blood feeding reveals similar changes in functionally related lipids

We conducted lipidomic analyses of the whole body of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, before and at multiple time points after blood feeding, to assess how lipidome changed with feeding and subsequent reproduction. There was an increase in the levels of almost all lipids at the time of feeding, which mostly reflected the intake of lipids from human blood; this increase was followed by a sharp decrease, often to a level below that detected before blood feeding. Between 16 to 30 hours after feeding, several lipid classes increased in abundance again to levels observed immediately after feeding, followed by a further decrease when approaching 120 hours after feeding. The concerted temporal pattern was particularly strong in signalling lipids, many of which increased more than ten folds. Patterns for membrane lipids suggest the possibility that lyso-glycerophospholipids do not participate in the development of oocytes. Our study on the anautogenous insect Ae. aegypti provides an opportunity to compare the abundance of specific lipids between mosquitoes and humans, and the results point to specific lipids likely to be important in the reproductive process with a role in oocytes development. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.