Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Geneva, Switzerland.
BMC Genomics. 2020 Aug 7;21(1):547. doi: 10.1186/s12864-020-06956-6.
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a highly dangerous invasive vector of numerous medically important arboviruses including dengue, chikungunya and Zika. In four decades it has spread from tropical Southeast Asia to many parts of the world in both tropical and temperate climes. The rapid invasion process of this mosquito is supported by its high ecological and genetic plasticity across different life history traits. Our aim was to investigate whether wild populations, both native and adventive, also display transcriptional genetic variability for functions that may impact their biology, behaviour and ability to transmit arboviruses, such as sensory perception.
Antennal transcriptome data were derived from mosquitoes from a native population from Ban Rai, Thailand and from three adventive Mediterranean populations: Athens, Greece and Arco and Trento from Italy. Clear inter-population differential transcriptional activity was observed in different gene categories related to sound perception, olfaction and viral infection. The greatest differences were detected between the native Thai and the Mediterranean populations. The two Italian populations were the most similar. Nearly one million quality filtered SNP loci were identified.
The ability to express this great inter-population transcriptional variability highlights, at the functional level, the remarkable genetic flexibility of this mosquito species. We can hypothesize that the differential expression of genes, including those involved in sensory perception, in different populations may enable Ae. albopictus to exploit different environments and hosts, thus contributing to its status as a global vector of arboviruses of public health importance. The large number of SNP loci present in these transcripts represents a useful addition to the arsenal of high-resolution molecular markers and a resource that can be used to detect selective pressure and adaptive changes that may have occurred during the colonization process.
亚洲虎蚊（Aedes albopictus）是一种极具危险性的入侵性媒介，能够传播多种医学上重要的虫媒病毒，包括登革热、基孔肯雅热和寨卡病毒。在四十年的时间里，它已经从热带东南亚扩散到世界上许多热带和温带地区。这种蚊子的快速入侵过程得益于其在不同生活史特征方面的高度生态和遗传可塑性。我们的目的是研究野生种群（包括本地种群和外来种群）是否也表现出对可能影响其生物学、行为和传播虫媒病毒能力的功能的转录遗传变异性，例如感觉感知。
从泰国 Ban Rai 的本地种群和三个外来的地中海种群（希腊雅典和意大利的 Arco 和特伦托）的蚊子中获得了触角转录组数据。在与声音感知、嗅觉和病毒感染相关的不同基因类别中，观察到明显的种群间差异转录活性。在本地泰国种群和地中海种群之间检测到最大的差异。两个意大利种群最为相似。鉴定出近 1000 万个质量过滤的 SNP 位点。
表达这种巨大的种群间转录变异性的能力突出了这种蚊子物种在功能水平上的显著遗传灵活性。我们可以假设，不同种群中包括感觉感知在内的基因的差异表达可能使 Ae. albopictus 能够利用不同的环境和宿主，从而有助于其成为具有公共卫生重要性的虫媒病毒的全球传播媒介。这些转录本中存在的大量 SNP 位点代表了高分辨率分子标记武器库的有用补充，并且可以用来检测在殖民化过程中可能发生的选择压力和适应性变化。
