Population genomics of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus: insights into the recent worldwide invasion

Abstract

Aedes albopictus, the “Asian tiger mosquito,” is an aggressive biting mosquito native to Asia that has colonized all continents except Antarctica during the last ~30–40 years. The species is of great public health concern as it can transmit at least 26 arboviruses, including dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. In this study, using double‐digest Restriction site‐Associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing, we developed a panel of ~58,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) based on 20 worldwide Ae. albopictus populations representing both the invasive and the native range. We used this genomic‐based approach to study the genetic structure and the differentiation of Ae. albopictus populations and to understand origin(s) and dynamics of the recent invasions. Our analyses indicated the existence of two major genetically differentiated population clusters, each one including both native and invasive populations. The detection of additional genetic structure within each major cluster supports that these SNPs can detect differentiation at a global and local scale, while the similar levels of genomic diversity between native and invasive range populations support the scenario of multiple invasions or colonization by a large number of propagules. Finally, our results revealed the possible source(s) of the recent invasion in Americas, Europe, and Africa, a finding with important implications for vector‐control strategies.

Cold adaptation in the Asian tiger mosquito's native range precedes its invasion success in temperate regions

“…Recent studies on genetic variation among A. albopictus native populations revealed geographic pattern of differentiation across large Southeast Asian Islands (Indonesia, Philippines), the Malaysian Peninsula (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore), the western (Myanmar), and the eastern (Vietnam) Indochinese Peninsula, China, and Japan (Supporting Information Fig. S8; Battaglia et al 2016;Kotsakiozi et al 2017;Maynard et al 2017; Sherpa et al 2019). Here, we show that populations genetically differentiated at neutral loci (Fig.…”

“…However, this later study does not indicate whether adaptations arose in invasive populations (genetic shift) and/or in the native population from which invasive ones were introduced (preadaptation). Evidence that most temperate invasive populations originated from neartemperate regions within the native range (Battaglia et al 2016;Kotsakiozi et al 2017;Manni et al 2017;Sherpa et al 2019) suggests that the source populations were already adapted to winter diapause and ready to become invasive in temperate regions. Furthermore, there is no clear indication for niche expansion that would have required adaptive evolution in temperate invaded areas (Cunze et al 2018).…”

Tangled banks: A landscape genomic evaluation of Wallace's Riverine barrier hypothesis for three Amazon plant species

“…Specifically, leaves from six individuals were obtained per sampling location. The typical limitations of small sample sizes are offset by large numbers of SNPs (Nazareno, Dick, et al., ; Willing, Dreyer, & van Oosterhout, ; Senn et al., ), which permit high‐resolution identification of genetic structure (Brown et al, ; Puckett et al, ; Trucchi et al, ; Kotsakiozi et al, ; Nazareno, Bemmels, Dick, & Lohmann, ). For example, in a previous study of Amphirrhox longifolia , Nazareno, Dick, et al.…”

Population structure of a vector of human diseases: Aedes aegypti in its ancestral range, Africa

“…To address this challenge, we leverage a high‐throughput species‐specific genotyping single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip (Evans et al., ). Dense genomic sampling of SNPs is extremely powerful for high‐resolution analysis of historical biogeography and invasion dynamics [e.g., in the study of Aedes species (Brown et al., ; Kotsakiozi, Richardson et al., ; Rašić, Filipović, Weeks, & Hoffmann, )]. The goals of this work were to (a) study the genetic structure of Ae.…”