Couper Lisa I, Dodge Tristram O, Hemker James A, Kim Bernard Y, Exposito-Alonso Moi, Brem Rachel B, Mordecai Erin A, Bitter Mark C
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94704.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jan 14;122(2):e2418199122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2418199122. Epub 2025 Jan 7.
Climate warming is expected to shift the distributions of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases, promoting expansions at cool range edges and contractions at warm range edges. However, whether mosquito populations could maintain their warm edges through evolutionary adaptation remains unknown. Here, we investigate the potential for thermal adaptation in , a congener of the major disease vector species that experiences large thermal gradients in its native range, by assaying tolerance to prolonged and acute heat exposure, and its genetic basis in a diverse, field-derived population. We found pervasive evidence of heritable genetic variation in mosquito heat tolerance, and phenotypic trade-offs in tolerance to prolonged versus acute heat exposure. Further, we found genomic variation associated with prolonged heat tolerance was clustered in several regions of the genome, suggesting the presence of larger structural variants such as chromosomal inversions. A simple evolutionary model based on our data estimates that the maximum rate of evolutionary adaptation in mosquito heat tolerance will exceed the projected rate of climate warming, implying the potential for mosquitoes to track warming via genetic adaptation.
预计气候变暖将改变蚊子和蚊媒疾病的分布，促使其在凉爽的分布边缘扩张，在温暖的分布边缘收缩。然而，蚊子种群是否能够通过进化适应来维持其温暖边缘仍不清楚。在这里，我们通过测定对长时间和急性热暴露的耐受性及其在一个多样化的、来自野外的种群中的遗传基础，研究了一种主要病媒物种的同属物种在其原生范围内经历巨大温度梯度时的热适应潜力。我们发现了蚊子耐热性中可遗传基因变异的普遍证据，以及对长时间与急性热暴露耐受性的表型权衡。此外，我们发现与长时间耐热性相关的基因组变异聚集在基因组的几个区域，这表明存在较大的结构变异，如染色体倒位。基于我们的数据的一个简单进化模型估计，蚊子耐热性的最大进化适应率将超过预计的气候变暖速度，这意味着蚊子有可能通过基因适应来追踪气候变暖。
