The genetic structure of < i > Aedes aegypti < /i > populations is driven by boat traffic in the Peruvian Amazon

by Sarah Anne J. Guagliardo, Yoosook Lee, Amanda A. Pierce, Jacklyn Wong, Yui Yin Chu, Amy C. Morrison, Helvio Astete, Berry Brosi, Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, Thomas W. Scott, Uriel Kitron, Steven T. Stoddard In the Americas, as in much of the rest of the world, the dengue virus vectorAedes aegypti is found in close association with human habitations, often leading to high population densities of mosquitoes in urban settings. In the Peruvian Amazon, this vector has been expanding to rural communities over the last 10 –15 years, but to date, the population genetic structure ofAe.aegypti in this region has not been characterized. To investigate the relationship betweenAe.aegypti gene flow and human transportation networks, we characterized mosquito population structure using a panel of 8 microsatellite markers and linked results to various potential mechanisms for long-distance dispersal. Adult and immatureAe.aegypti (>20 individuals per site) were collected from Iquitos city and from six neighboring riverine communities, i.e., Nauta, Indiana, Mazan, Barrio Florida, Tamshiaco, and Aucayo. FST statistics indicate significant, but low to moderate differentiation for the majority of study site pairs. Population structure ofAe.aegypti is not correlated with the geographic distance between towns, suggesting that human transportation networks provide a reasonable explanation for the high levels of population mixing. Our results indicate thatAe.aegypti gene flow among sub-population...
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research