The Worldwide Spread of the Tiger Mosquito as Revealed by Mitogenome Haplogroup Diversity

Abstract

In the last 40 years, the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus, indigenous to East Asia, has colonized every continent except Antarctica. Its spread is a major public health concern, given that this species is a competent vector for numerous arboviruses, including those causing dengue, chikungunya, West Nile, and the recently emerged Zika fever. To acquire more information on the ancestral source(s) of adventive populations and the overall diffusion process from its native range, we analyzed the mitogenome variation of 27 individuals from representative populations of Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Phylogenetic analyses revealed five haplogroups in Asia, but population surveys appear to indicate that only three of these (A1a1, A1a2, and A1b) were involved in the recent worldwide spread. We also found out that a derived lineage (A1a1a1) within A1a1, which is now common in Italy, most likely arose in North America from an ancestral Japanese source. These different genetic sources now coexist in many of the recently colonized areas, thus probably creating novel genomic combinations which might be one of the causes of the apparently growing ability of A. albopictus to expand its geographical range.

Tiger on the prowl: Invasion history and spatio-temporal genetic structure of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse 1894) in the Indo-Pacific

“…Within the Torres Strait Islands it appears the population is of tropical, Indonesian origin and egg survival was lower in less humid conditions [77], supporting this conclusion. However, it is worth noting that there are multiple other COI haplotypes that do not conform to any obvious geographic patterns (S6 Fig), suggesting that there have been multiple introduction events into some locations from mainland Asia or potentially unsampled locations—a similar pattern which was also highlighted by other studies [9, 74]. The possibility of insertion of mtDNA in the nuclear genome [78, 79] was considered in this study and our COI sequences were assessed by examining chromatograms (no double peaks in chromatograms) and by checking for stop codons.…”

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.…”

“…Evidence that most temperate invasive populations originated from near‐temperate regions within the native range (Battaglia et al. ; Kotsakiozi et al. ; Manni et al.…”

“…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).…”

Unravelling the invasion history of the Asian tiger mosquito in Europe

“…After two introduction events in 1979 in Albania (Adhami & Murati, ) and 1990 in Italy (Sabatini, Raineri, Trovato, & Coluzzi, ), the species has progressively colonized all Southern European countries, and its geographical spread over time suggests an acceleration of the expansion process (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [ECDC], ). Broad‐scale phylogeographical studies have suggested independent introduction events in Europe and no apparent reduction in genetic diversity as compared to the native range (Battaglia et al, ; Goubert, Minard, Vieira, & Boulesteix, ; Kotsakiozi et al, ; Manni et al, ). These previous studies were based on sparse worldwide populations and did not focus on the demographic history in the invaded range.…”