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Evolutionary Genetics and Phylogenetics of Mosquito Species

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A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Population and Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 12689

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Prof. Dr. Jan E. Conn

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Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY 12201, USA
Interests: vector biology; population genetics; mosquito ecology; phylogenetics; vector-borne diseases; landscape genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Maria Anice Mureb Sallum

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Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 01246-904, SP, Brazil
Interests: public health; ecology; entomology; malaria; vector-borne diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vector-borne diseases are responsible for approximately 17% of the global burden of communicable diseases and more than 700,000 deaths annually. Rapid urbanization, changes in land use patterns, increased international trade and human movement worldwide have been associated with the intensification of pathogen transmission in endemic areas and the spread and outbreaks of vector-borne diseases in new regions, including temperate zones. As “the most dangerous animals in the world”, mosquitoes are fascinating, complex, and will likely always be with us. Across Culicidae, the diversity and heterogeneity of preferred ‘hosts’ range from the hemolymph of insect species through amphibians and reptiles to birds and mammals. A few genera, such as Toxorhynchites, feed exclusively on nectar. What mechanisms are responsible for mosquito host choice? Spatiotemporal shifts in host-seeking, feeding, and resting behaviors have been documented and recent progress includes the detection of a single underlying ancestral component linked to human preference in Aedes aegypti. Current and predicted rapid urbanization and concurrent land use change worldwide may push mosquito evolution in the direction of increased human biting. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: the evolution of host preference, mechanisms underlying host-seeking, mosquito genome structure, and maintenance of mosquito diversity.

Prof. Dr. Jan E. Conn
Prof. Dr. Maria Anice Mureb Sallum
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Host preference
Mosquito genomes
Evolutionary history
Rapid urbanization
Mosquito diversity
Multiple blood meals

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2401 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bacterial Community Diversity and Bacterial Interaction Network in Eight Mosquito Species

by Herculano da Silva, Tatiane M. P. Oliveira and Maria Anice M. Sallum

Genes 2022, 13(11), 2052; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/genes13112052 - 07 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1841

Abstract

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are found widely throughout the world. Several species can transmit pathogens to humans and other vertebrates. Mosquitoes harbor great amounts of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The bacterial composition of the microbiota of these invertebrates is associated with several factors, such as larval habitat, environment, and species. Yet little is known about bacterial interaction networks in mosquitoes. This study investigates the bacterial communities of eight species of Culicidae collected in Vale do Ribeira (Southeastern São Paulo State) and verifies the bacterial interaction network in these species. Sequences of the 16S rRNA region from 111 mosquito samples were analyzed. Bacterial interaction networks were generated from Spearman correlation values. Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in all species. Wolbachia was the predominant genus in Haemagogus leucocelaenus. Aedes scapularis, Aedes serratus, Psorophora ferox, and Haemagogus capricornii were the species that showed a greater number of bacterial interactions. Bacterial positive interactions were found in all mosquito species, whereas negative correlations were observed in Hg. leucocelaenus, Ae. scapularis, Ae. serratus, Ps. ferox, and Hg. capricornii. All bacterial interactions with Asaia and Wolbachia were negative in Aedes mosquitoes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Genetics and Phylogenetics of Mosquito Species)

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15 pages, 1448 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Molecular Analysis Reveals a High Diversity of Anopheline Mosquitoes in Yanomami Lands and the Pantanal Region of Brazil

by Teresa Fernandes Silva-do-Nascimento, Jordi Sánchez-Ribas, Tatiane M. P. Oliveira, Brian Patrick Bourke, Joseli Oliveira-Ferreira, Maria Goreti Rosa-Freitas, Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira, Mariana Marinho-e-Silva, Maycon Sebastião Alberto Santos Neves, Jan E. Conn and Maria Anice Mureb Sallum

Genes 2021, 12(12), 1995; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/genes12121995 - 16 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2785

Abstract

Identifying the species of the subfamily Anophelinae that are Plasmodium vectors is important to vector and malaria control. Despite the increase in cases, vector mosquitoes remain poorly known in Brazilian indigenous communities. This study explores Anophelinae mosquito diversity in the following areas: (1) a Yanomami reserve in the northwestern Amazon Brazil biome and (2) the Pantanal biome in southwestern Brazil. This is carried out by analyzing cytochrome c oxidase (COI) gene data using Refined Single Linkage (RESL), Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP), and tree-based multi-rate Poisson tree processes (mPTP) as species delimitation approaches. A total of 216 specimens collected from the Yanomami and Pantanal regions were sequenced and combined with 547 reference sequences for species delimitation analyses. The mPTP analysis for all sequences resulted in the delimitation of 45 species groups, while the ASAP analysis provided the partition of 48 groups. RESL analysis resulted in 63 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). This study expands our scant knowledge of anopheline species in the Yanomami and Pantanal regions. At least 18 species of Anophelinae mosquitoes were found in these study areas. Additional studies are now required to determine the species that transmit Plasmodium spp. in these regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Genetics and Phylogenetics of Mosquito Species)

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20 pages, 2353 KiB

Open AccessArticle

First Description of the Mitogenome and Phylogeny of Culicinae Species from the Amazon Region

by Bruna Laís Sena do Nascimento, Fábio Silva da Silva, Joaquim Pinto Nunes-Neto, Daniele Barbosa de Almeida Medeiros, Ana Cecília Ribeiro Cruz, Sandro Patroca da Silva, Lucas Henrique da Silva e Silva, Hamilton Antônio de Oliveira Monteiro, Daniel Damous Dias, Durval Bertram Rodrigues Vieira, José Wilson Rosa, Jr., Roberto Carlos Feitosa Brandão, Jannifer Oliveira Chiang, Livia Carício Martins and Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos

Genes 2021, 12(12), 1983; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/genes12121983 - 14 Dec 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2844

Abstract

The Culicidae family is distributed worldwide and comprises about 3587 species subdivided into the subfamilies Anophelinae and Culicinae. This is the first description of complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from Aedes fluviatilis, Aedeomyia squamipennis, Coquillettidia nigricans, Psorophora albipes, and Psorophora ferox. The mitogenomes showed an average length of 15,046 pb and 78.02% AT content, comprising 37 functional subunits (13 protein coding genes, 22 tRNAs, and two rRNAs). The most common start codons were ATT/ATG, and TAA was the stop codon for all PCGs. The tRNAs had the typical leaf clover structure, except tRNA^Ser1. Phylogeny was inferred by analyzing the 13 PCGs concatenated nucleotide sequences of 48 mitogenomes. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analysis placed Ps. albipes and Ps. ferox in the Janthinosoma group, like the accepted classification of Psorophora genus. Ae. fluviatilis was placed in the Aedini tribe, but was revealed to be more related to the Haemagogus genus, a result that may have been hampered by the poor sampling of Aedes sequences. Cq. nigricans clustered with Cq. chrysonotum, both related to Mansonia. Ae. squamipennis was placed as the most external lineage of the Culicinae subfamily. The yielded topology supports the concept of monophyly of all groups and ratifies the current taxonomic classification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Genetics and Phylogenetics of Mosquito Species)

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10 pages, 11639 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Susceptibility of Field-Collected Nyssorhynchus darlingi to Plasmodium spp. in Western Amazonian Brazil

by Diego Peres Alonso, Marcus Vinicius Niz Alvarez, Paulo Eduardo Martins Ribolla, Jan E. Conn, Tatiane Marques Porangaba de Oliveira and Maria Anice Mureb Sallum

Genes 2021, 12(11), 1693; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/genes12111693 - 25 Oct 2021

Viewed by 1788

Abstract

Mosquito susceptibility to Plasmodium spp. infection is of paramount importance for malaria occurrence and sustainable transmission. Therefore, understanding the genetic features underlying the mechanisms of susceptibility traits is pivotal to assessing malaria transmission dynamics in endemic areas. The aim of this study was to investigate the susceptibility of Nyssorhynchus darlingi—the dominant malaria vector in Brazil—to Plasmodium spp. using a reduced representation genome-sequencing protocol. The investigation was performed using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify mosquito genes that are predicted to modulate the susceptibility of natural populations of the mosquito to Plasmodium infection. After applying the sequence alignment protocol, we generated the variant panel and filtered variants; leading to the detection of 202,837 SNPs in all specimens analyzed. The resulting panel was used to perform GWAS by comparing the pool of SNP variants present in Ny. darlingi infected with Plasmodium spp. with the pool obtained in field-collected mosquitoes with no evidence of infection by the parasite (all mosquitoes were tested separately using RT-PCR). The GWAS results for infection status showed two statistically significant variants adjacent to important genes that can be associated with susceptibility to Plasmodium infection: Cytochrome P450 (cyp450) and chitinase. This study provides relevant knowledge on malaria transmission dynamics by using a genomic approach to identify mosquito genes associated with susceptibility to Plasmodium infection in Ny. darlingi in western Amazonian Brazil. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Genetics and Phylogenetics of Mosquito Species)

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15 pages, 1308 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Asian Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) in Vietnam: Evidence for Genetic Differentiation by Climate Region

by Cuong-Van Duong, Ji-Hyoun Kang, Vinh-Van Nguyen and Yeon-Jae Bae

Genes 2021, 12(10), 1579; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/genes12101579 - 06 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2491

Abstract

Aedes albopictus is a native mosquito to Southeast Asia with a high potential for disease transmission. Understanding how Ae. albopictus populations that develop in the species’ native range is useful for planning future control strategies and for identifying the sources of invasive ranges. The present study aims to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of Ae. albopictus across various climatic regions of Vietnam. We analyzed mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequences from specimens collected from 16 localities, and we used distance-based redundancy analysis to evaluate the amount of variation in the genetic distance that could be explained by both geographic distance and climatic factors. High levels of genetic polymorphism were detected, and the haplotypes were similar to those sequences from both temperate and tropical regions worldwide. Of note, these haplotype groups were geographically distributed, resulting in a distinct population structure in which northeastern populations and the remaining populations were genetically differentiated. Notably, genetic variation among the Ae. albopictus populations was driven primarily by climatic factors (64.55%) and to a lesser extent was also influenced by geographic distance (33.73%). These findings fill important gaps in the current understanding of the population genetics of Ae. albopictus in Vietnam, especially with respect to providing data to track the origin of the invaded regions worldwide. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Genetics and Phylogenetics of Mosquito Species)

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