Table 1 Checklist of minimum metadata to be collected for mosquito microbiome samples and all controls (positive and negative) processed, along with examples following existing standards of recording and reporting arthropod and genomics data. A ready-to-use interactive and customizable template of these metadata records is freely available here: https://mosquito-microbiome.org/resources/mmc-white-paper/
From: Considerations for mosquito microbiome research from the Mosquito Microbiome Consortium
Metadata fields | Example |
|---|---|
General | |
 Study type | Field, semi-field, or laboratory |
 Sample name | Anopheles gambiae midgut, no template extraction/PCR control (negative control), ZymoBIOMICS microbial community standard or other known mock community (positive control), etc. |
 Sample ID | An_Gambiae_MG_01 |
 Number per sample | Individual, pool of 3 individuals, etc. |
 Sample taxonomy | Anopheles albimanus |
 Developmental stage | Egg, larval instar, pupa, or adult |
 Sex | Male, female, or both pooled |
 Agea | 3 days post adult eclosion, 2–5 days post eclosion etc. |
 Mating status | Virgin or mated/non-virgin |
 Gonotrophic status | Non-gravid, fully gravid, or half-gravid |
 Blood fed | Non-blood fed or blood fed |
 Type of food providedb | 10% sucrose, human blood, 1:3 yeast and TetraMin, etc. |
 Tissue processed | Whole mosquito, midgut, ovaries, cuticle surface, etc. |
 Sample phenotype | Virus/parasite infection status, insecticide resistance status, etc. |
 Collection date | YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD |
 Collection time | hh, hh:mm, or hh:mm:ss |
 Biomolecule processed | DNA, RNA, protein, metabolites, etc. |
 Biomolecule isolation method | QIAGEN blood and tissue, phenol-chloroform, etc. |
 Sequencing method | 16S rRNA amplicon, whole (meta)genome, metatranscriptomic, etc. |
 Sequencing platform | Illumina, Oxford Nanopore, etc. |
 Sequencing platform model | MiSeq (Illumina), MinIon (Oxford Nanopore), etc. |
 Sample storage preservative | None, Ethanol, RNALater®, etc. |
 Sample storage temperature | − 20 °C, − 80 °C, etc. |
 Sample storage duration | None, 6 months, 3 years, etc. |
Specific to field studies | |
 Collection country | Nigeria |
 Collection village or city | Iko Esai village |
 Location coordinates | 00.000000, 00 00.0000, or 00° 00′ 00.0″ N 0° 00′ 00.0″ E |
 Climatic/environmental data | 27 °C, 82% RH |
 Land cover | Savanna, urban and built up, tundra, etc. See Loveland et al. [31] for more examples |
 Collection method | Human landing catch, mechanical aspirator, gravid trap, or larval dipping |
 Collection bait | CO2, cattle |
Specific to laboratory studies | |
 Name and location of laboratory (and/or facility) | The Short Lab, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA |
 Strain | STECLA, KISUMU, ROCKEFELLER |
 Generation | F1, F6, F59, etc. |
 Maintenance temperature | 27 ± 2 °C |
 Maintenance relative humidity | 80 ± 10% |
 Light-dark cycle | 10-h light; 14-h dark |
Specific to semi-field studies | |
 Name and location of semi-field facility (if widely used/known) | MalariaSphere, Mbita Point Research & Training Center, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Mbita, Kenya [32] |
 Type of semi-field structure | Glass house, mesh house, mesh cage, etc. |
 Dimensions of semi-field structure | 00.00 × 00.00 m |