Genetic basis for host preference in Culex pipiens

项目摘要 在寻找血液时，蚊子物种往往偏向一个宿主而不是其他宿主，这可能 极大地影响了它们将疾病传播给人类的可能性。越来越清楚的是， 寄主寻求偏见是基于基因组的，但我们对确切的基因组驱动因素的知识存在显著差距 这些偏见中的一部分仍然存在。就淡色库蚊而言，人们对什么基因驱动宿主位置知之甚少。 和摄食行为，但它们是西尼罗河病毒(WNV)传播给人类的主要媒介 美国东北部。西尼罗河病毒通常是通过Cx的叮咬在禽类之间传播的。淡水鱼 蚊子，但人类每年都会爆发疫情。Cx的两个可育类型。琵琶，被称为真的 蚊子和性骚扰使西尼罗河病毒的传播情况变得复杂。真正的蚊子在地面上繁殖，并且是 被认为主要以鸟为食，而性骚扰则在人类栖息地附近的地下繁殖，以 哺乳动物，包括人类。目前的模式是，性骚扰和上面的 地面蚊子的形成导致了人类西尼罗河病毒的高度传播。我们的研究旨在对这一点进行实证检验 范例：1)量化地上蚊虫、地下瓢虫及其杂交后代的行为。 对鸟类和哺乳动物宿主的反应，并将宿主选择与一个 实验室环境，2)野外采集鸟类和哺乳动物喂养的CX。用来确定大脑的哪些区域 蚊子的基因组与不同的寄主摄食有关，以及3)利用公认的流行病学 衡量禽类和哺乳类饲喂形式的Cx杂交效果的模型。淡水鱼 关于西尼罗河病毒在人类中的传播风险。

Project Summary When seeking blood, mosquito species are often biased toward one host over others, and this can significantly impact their likelihood of transmitting disease to humans. It is becoming increasingly clear that host seeking biases are genomically based, but significant gaps in our knowledge of the exact genomic drivers of these biases still exist. In the case of Culex pipiens, very little is known about what genes drive host location and feeding behaviors, and yet they are the primary vectors of West Nile virus (WNV) to humans across the Northeastern United States. WNV is typically transmitted from bird to bird by the bite of a Cx. pipiens mosquito, but human outbreaks occur annually. The two inter-fertile forms of Cx. pipiens, known as true pipiens and molestus, complicate the WNV transmission picture. True pipiens breeds above ground and is thought to primarily feed on birds, while molestus breeds below ground near human habitations, and feeds on mammals, including humans. The current paradigm is that interbreeding between molestus and the above ground pipiens forms leads to heightened human WNV transmission. Our research aims to empirically test this paradigm by: 1) quantifying the behaviors of above ground pipiens, below ground molestus and their hybrids in response to avian and mammalian hosts, and linking host choices to underlying genomic regions in a laboratory setting, 2) field-collecting avian and mammal-fed Cx. pipiens to determine which regions of the mosquito genome are associated with divergent host feeding, and 3) using a well-established epidemiological model to measure the effect of hybridization between the avian- and mammalian-feeding forms of Cx. pipiens on WNV transmission risk in humans.