Comprehensive characterization of ancestral populations of the vector Aedes aegypti on Indian Ocean islands

项目总结/摘要 我们最近的研究表明，撒哈拉以南非洲的所有埃及伊蚊种群的祖先 目前，世界各地的海豚都居住在西南印度洋（SWIO）的岛屿上，包括马达加斯加。 这些岛屿形成了非洲大陆的Ae。埃及福尔摩沙人不早于十万年前。 我们建议多学科研究的SWIO人口的Ae。埃及伊蚊沿着及其近亲埃及伊蚊Ae. mascarensis和Ae.皮娅。这将包括人口遗传学，遗传学/地理学，矢量 能力，血粉分析，并表征现场捕获的女性病毒组。我们解决 问题如：是祖先，引起了阿。埃及公司能够传播相同的病毒 导致人类疾病的病毒吗这些蚊子是否携带相同的病毒， 携带新型未描述虫媒病毒？他们的血食来源是什么？它们在哪里繁殖？ 种群遗传学和系统发育的初步工作已经确定了新的未描述的候选人 物种，我们怀疑更多的神秘类群将被发现。我们建议组装完整的基因组， 最翔实的人口/类群，将允许比较研究，以及推断的祖先 的基因组。Aegypti s.s.，一个基本的资源，用于分析正在进行的大量基因组学研究， 世界各地的实验室。

Project Summary/Abstract We have recently shown that the ancestors of all Aedes aegypti populations in both sub-Saharan Africa as well as around the world presently reside on islands in the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) including Madagascar. These islands gave rise to continental African Ae. aegypti formosus no earlier than about 100,000 years ago. We propose multidisciplinary studies on SWIO populations of Ae. aegypti along with its close relatives, Ae. mascarensis and Ae. pia. This will include population genetics, phylogenetics/phylogeography, vector competence, blood meal analyses, and characterization of the virome of field-caught females. We address question such as: Are the ancestors that gave rise to Ae. aegypti s.s. capable of transmitting the same viruses that cause human diseases? Are these mosquitoes carrying the same viruses in the field and/or do they harbor novel undescribed arboviruses? What are the sources of their blood meals? Where do they breed? Population genetics and phylogenetic preliminary work have already identified candidates for new undescribed species and we suspect more cryptic taxa will be found. We propose to assemble complete genomes for the most informative populations/taxa that will allow comparative studies as well as inference of the ancestral genome of Ae. aegypti s.s., a fundamental resource for analysis of a plethora of genomics studies ongoing in laboratories around the world.