Culicidae evolutionary history focusing on the Culicinae subfamily based on mitochondrial phylogenomics

Abstract

Mosquitoes are insects of medical importance due their role as vectors of different pathogens to humans. There is a lack of information about the evolutionary history and phylogenetic positioning of the majority of mosquito species. Here we characterized the mitogenomes of mosquito species through low-coverage whole genome sequencing and data mining. A total of 37 draft mitogenomes of different species were assembled from which 16 are newly-sequenced species. We datamined additional 49 mosquito mitogenomes, and together with our 37 mitogenomes, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of 86 species including representatives from 15 genera and 7 tribes. Our results showed that most of the species clustered in clades with other members of their own genus with exception of Aedes genus which was paraphyletic. We confirmed the monophyletic status of the Mansoniini tribe including both Coquillettidia and Mansonia genus. The Aedeomyiini and Uranotaeniini were consistently recovered as basal to other tribes in the subfamily Culicinae, although the exact relationships among these tribes differed between analyses. These results demonstrate that low-coverage sequencing is effective to recover mitogenomes, establish phylogenetic knowledge and hence generate basic fundamental information that will help in the understanding of the role of these species as pathogen vectors.

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

“…Our results corroborate the basal placement of subgenus Kertezia within the genus Anopheles , despite the no representativity of Chagasia genus, that so far is classified as most basal group [ 69 , 70 , 71 ]. New evolutionary evidence on temporal diversification has shown that radiation in the Culicinae subfamily is older than Anophelinae and that Bironella phylogenetic status is not stable [ 72 ].…”

Phylogeny and temporal diversification of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) with an emphasis on the Neotropical fauna

“…Bironella was placed in different positions according to the method used, similar to previous studies (Besansky & Fahey, 1997; Foley et al ., 1998; Krzywinski et al ., 2001; Sallum et al ., 2002; Collucci & Sallum, 2007; Foster et al ., 2017; Da Silva et al ., 2020). Belkin (1962) stated that Bironella is very similar to Anopheles in the immature stages and differs in the adults only in palpal, venational and genitalic characters.…”

Chronological Incongruences between Mitochondrial and Nuclear Phylogenies of Aedes Mosquitoes

“…In the latter, the diversification of A. albopictus from its sister species A. flavopictus is circa 25 MYA, while A. albopictus and A. aegypti common ancestor was set at approximately 55 MYA, a time compatible estimate, but quite distant from that based on whole genomes 71 (44-107) MYA [14]. A recent divergence estimate of Culicinae using complete mtDNA [32] recovered the origin of Aedini at 130 (CI: 101-168) MYA and an A. albopictus-A. aegypti split at circa 67 (CI: 55-94) MYA.…”