Population structure of the invasive Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, in Europe
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is currently the most widespread invasive mosquito species in the world. It poses a significant threat to human health, as it is a vector for several arboviruses. We used a SNP chip to genotype 748 Ae. albopictus mosquitoes from 41 localities across Europe, 28 localities in the native range in Asia, and 4 in the Americas. Using multiple algorithms, we examined population genetic structure and differentiation within Europe and across our global dataset to gain insight into the origin of the invasive European populations. We also compared results from our SNP data to those obtained using genotypes from 11 microsatellite loci (N = 637 mosquitoes from 25 European localities) to explore how sampling effort and the type of genetic marker used may influence conclusions about Ae. albopictus population structure. While some analyses detected more than 20 clusters worldwide, we found mosquitoes could be grouped into 7 distinct genetic clusters, with most European populations originating in East Asia (Japan or China). Interestingly, some populations in Eastern Europe did not share genetic ancestry with any populations from the native range or Americas, indicating that these populations originated from areas not sampled in this study. The SNP and microsatellite datasets found similar patterns of genetic differentiation in Europe, but the microsatellite dataset could not detect the more subtle genetic structure revealed using SNPs. Overall, data from the SNP chip offered a higher resolution for detecting the genetic structure and the potential origins of invasions.
Date Issued
2025-03-01
Date Acceptance
2025-02-03
Citation
Ecology and Evolution, 2025, 15 (3)
ISSN
2045-7758
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Ecology and Evolution
Volume
15
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40060725
PII: ECE371009
Subjects
Aedes albopictus
AEGYPTI
CHIKUNGUNYA
DENGUE
DIPTERA-CULICIDAE
disease vector
Ecology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
GENETIC DIVERSITY
INFERENCE
invasive species
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
microsatellites
MULTILOCUS GENOTYPE DATA
population genomics
population structure
R-PACKAGE
Science & Technology
SKUSE
SNP chip
tiger mosquito
VECTOR
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
e71009
Date Publish Online
2025-03-07