Bloodmeal, Host Selection, and Genetic Admixture Analyses of Culex pipiens Complex (Diptera: Culicidae) Mosquitoes in Chicago, IL

Kothera, Linda; Mutebi, John-Paul; Kenney, Joan L.; Saxton-Shaw, Kali D.; Ward, Michael P.; Savage, Harry M.

doi:10.1093/jme/tjz158

Cited by 16 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…pipiens to feed on T. merula and P. domesticus was also observed in other European studies (Muñoz et al, 2012;Roiz et al, 2012;Gomes et al, 2013;Rizzoli et al, 2015). It is noteworthy that synanthropic and abundant bird species such as the rock pigeon C. livia could have been underestimated, since their abundance in the urban setting did not reflect the proportion of blood meals taken, which is consistent with other studies carried out in Europe and United States (Rizzoli et al, 2015;Kothera et al, 2020). Analyses of gravid/blood-fed Cx.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Avian Feeding Preferences of Culex pipiens and Culiseta spp. Along an Urban-to-Wild Gradient in Northern Spain

et al. 2020

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Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are regarded as annoying biting pests and vectors of disease-causing agents to humans and other vertebrates worldwide. Factors that affect their distribution and host choice are not well understood. Here, we assessed the species abundance, community composition, and feeding patterns of mosquitoes in an urban-to-wild habitat gradient in northern Spain. Adult mosquitoes from four habitats (urban, periurban, rural, and wild) were collected by aspiration from mid-July to mid-September, 2019. Thirteen species were represented among the 268 specimens (132 females and 136 males) trapped, including six new records reported for the first time in the region. Culex pipiens was the most abundant species in all habitats except in the wild, where Culex territans was dominant. The highest mosquito diversity was recorded in the wild habitat [species richness (S) = 10 and Shannon/Margalef-Diversity Indices (H'/MI = 1.51/1.36)] and the lowest in the urban habitat (S = 3; H'/MI = 0.24/0.41). Blood-engorged specimens (n = 65) represented 49.2% of the total female collections. Eighty percent of the blood-meals (n = 52) were successfully identified based on cytochrome c oxidase I subunit (COI) DNA barcoding. Nine species of birds were identified in blood meals from the three ecological forms of Cx. pipiens (n = 48), Culiseta fumipennis (n = 3), and Culiseta morsitans (n = 1) collected along the four sampling habitats. Four dominant bird species were recorded in Cx. pipiens, i.e., Parus major (35.4%), Turdus merula (18.7%), Pica pica (18.7%), and Passer domesticus (10.4%). Despite the availability of dog and human hosts in the sampling sites located in the urban habitat, Cx. pipiens seemed to have a preference to feed on birds. Culiseta fumipennis blood-meal host records are reported for first time in Europe. These findings on mosquito blood-feeding preferences and habitat community changes will help to better understand vector-host associations and pathogen transmission paths.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Avian Feeding Preferences of Culex pipiens and Culiseta spp. Along an Urban-to-Wild Gradient in Northern Spain

et al. 2020

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“…This agreed with previous blood meal analyses of field-collected AG Cx. pipiens from metropolitan Chicago showing that they are predominantly avian-feeding [56,75,76]. AG4 showed the strongest bias toward landing on the chicken (90.9%), yet was not significantly different from AG1-AG3.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Primarily mammal-seeking. [23,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] Here, we acquired eight populations of North American Cx. pipiens, collected from previously described above-ground form pipiens breeding and over-wintering sites and belowground form molestus breeding sites ( Table 1 and Table S1).…”

Section: Trait Form Pipiens Form Molestus Citationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Gene Expression in the Heads of Behaviorally Divergent Culex pipiens Mosquitoes

Noreuil

Fritz

2021

Insects

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Host preferences of Cx. pipiens, a bridge vector for West Nile virus to humans, have the potential to drive pathogen transmission dynamics. Yet much remains unknown about the extent of variation in these preferences and their molecular basis. We conducted host choice assays in a laboratory setting to quantify multi-day human and avian landing rates for Cx. pipiens females. Assayed populations originated from five above-ground and three below-ground breeding and overwintering habitats. All three below-ground populations were biased toward human landings, with rates of human landing ranging from 69–85%. Of the five above-ground populations, four had avian landing rates of >80%, while one landed on the avian host only 44% of the time. Overall response rates and willingness to alternate landing on the human and avian hosts across multiple days of testing also varied by population. For one human- and one avian-preferring population, we examined patterns of differential expression and splice site variation at genes expressed in female heads. We also compared gene expression and splice site variation within human-seeking females in either gravid or host-seeking physiological states to identify genes that may regulate blood feeding behaviors. Overall, we identified genes with metabolic and regulatory function that were differentially expressed in our comparison of gravid and host-seeking females. Differentially expressed genes in our comparison of avian- and human-seeking females were enriched for those involved in sensory perception. We conclude with a discussion of specific sensory genes and their potential influence on the divergent behaviors of avian- and human-seeking Cx. pipiens.

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“…p. pipiens and Cx. p. molestus of ~8% in the northern cities of the USA (Chicago, IL and New York, NY) 30,50 . In southern Europe, where Cx.…”

Section: Concepts Of Speciation and Evolution Of The Culex Pipiens Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic differentiation and intercontinental population structure of mosquito vectors Culex pipiens pipiens and Culex pipiens molestus

Yurchenko

Masri

Khrabrova

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Understanding the population structure and mechanisms of taxa diversification is important for organisms responsible for the transmission of human diseases. Two vectors of West Nile virus, Culex pipiens pipiens and Cx. p. molestus, exhibit epidemiologically important behavioral and physiological differences, but the whole-genome divergence between them was unexplored. The goal of this study is to better understand the level of genomic differentiation and population structures of Cx. p. pipiens and Cx. p. molestus from different continents. We sequenced and compared the whole genomes of 40 individual mosquitoes from two locations in Eurasia and two in North America. Principal Component, ADMIXTURE, and neighbor joining analyses of the nuclear genomes identified two major intercontinental, monophyletic clusters of Cx. p. pipiens and Cx. p. molestus. The level of genomic differentiation between the subspecies was uniform along chromosomes. The ADMIXTURE analysis determined signatures of admixture in Cx. p. pipens populations but not in Cx. p. molestus populations. Comparison of mitochondrial genomes among the specimens showed a paraphyletic origin of the major haplogroups between the subspecies but a monophyletic structure between the continents. Thus, our study identified that Cx. p. molestus and Cx. p. pipiens represent different evolutionary units with monophyletic origin that have undergone incipient ecological speciation. The advent of genomics has provided new insights into population divergence between incipient taxa, changing our vision about the mechanisms of adaptation and speciation 1. Experimental data demonstrate highly heterogenous patterns of population differentiation in various groups of organisms 2. In addition to the classical model of allopatric speciation, when incipient taxa are isolated geographically 3 , it becomes obvious that ecological speciation or the development of reproductive isolation between populations as a result of adaptation to different environments is feasible and common in nature 4-6. Understanding the population structure and the mechanisms of taxa diversification in the changing environment is extremely important if the studied organisms are related to the transmission of human diseases 7. Members of the Culex pipiens complex are globally distributed throughout Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Australia and represent competent vectors of the lymphatic filariasis parasite and encephalitis viruses, including the widely spread West Nile virus 8-11. However, despite the fact that Cx. pipiens was the first mosquito species described by C. Linnaeus in his "Systema Naturae" 12 , mosquitoes from the Cx. pipiens complex still represent "one of the major outstanding problems in mosquito taxonomy" because the

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Bloodmeal, Host Selection, and Genetic Admixture Analyses of Culex pipiens Complex (Diptera: Culicidae) Mosquitoes in Chicago, IL

Cited by 16 publications

References 37 publications

Avian Feeding Preferences of Culex pipiens and Culiseta spp. Along an Urban-to-Wild Gradient in Northern Spain

Avian Feeding Preferences of Culex pipiens and Culiseta spp. Along an Urban-to-Wild Gradient in Northern Spain

Differential Gene Expression in the Heads of Behaviorally Divergent Culex pipiens Mosquitoes

Genomic differentiation and intercontinental population structure of mosquito vectors Culex pipiens pipiens and Culex pipiens molestus

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