Most mosquito species are anautogenous, which refers to the requirement of adult females to blood feed on a vertebrate host in order to produce eggs. Blood feeding also stimulates proliferation of the gut microbiota, which increases exposure risk to infectious agents that mosquitoes can transmit. Endocrine factors regulate both blood meal induced egg formation and the proliferation of immune cells. In this presentation, I will discuss the underlying mechanisms that regulate egg production and immune cell proliferation. Comparative data further indicate these processes are conserved in anautogenous but not autogenous mosquitoes. I summarize these findings by discussing potential trade-offs between reproduction and immunity in hematophagous arthropods.
