Molecular relationships of introducedAedes japonicus(Diptera: Culicidae) populations in British Columbia, Canada using mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Aedes japonicus japonicus (Theobald) is a relatively recent immigrant to the Pacific Northwest, having been collected in Washington State in 2001 and in British Columbia (BC) since 2014. We applied a molecular barcoding approach to determine the phylogenetic relationship of Ae. j. japonicus populations in BC with those from around the world. We sequenced a 617 base‐pair segment of the cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene and a 330 base‐pair region of the NADH dehydrogenase 4 gene to find genetic variation and characterize phylogenetic and haplotypic relationships based on nucleotide divergences. Our results revealed low genetic diversity in the BC samples, suggesting that these populations arose from the same introduction event. However, our approach lacked the granularity to identify the exact country of origin of the Ae. j. japonicus collected in BC. Future efforts should focus on detecting and preventing new Ae. j. japonicus introductions, recognizing that current molecular techniques are unable to pin‐point the precise source of an introduction.

The Invasive Mosquitoes of Canada: An Entomological, Medical, and Veterinary Review

“…j. japonicus arrived in eastern North America via at least two separate introductions from Europe, 121 and similar studies suggest that populations in western North America are derived from these populations. 122 Evidence from the United States suggests that human-assisted dispersal is the main mode of Ae. j. japonicus expansion within North America.…”

Shallow Whole-Genome Sequencing of Aedes japonicus and Aedes koreicus from Italy and an Updated Picture of Their Evolution Based on Mitogenomics and Barcoding

“…A draft genome and mitogenome of an A. koreicus individual sampled from Hungary has been recently published [25], and two identical A. koreicus mitogenomes from Korea have been sequenced [26]. Although characterised by a larger invasive range, A. japonicus is poorly characterised from a molecular point of view; microsatellites and some mitochondrial markers are available [20,[27][28][29][30], and a complete mitogenome sequence from a Hawaiian sample has been recently published [31]. More genome-scale data of both species from their invasive range are required to confidently infer their evolutionary history.…”