Population Structure of the Invasive Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus, in the Americas

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is an invasive species that has become widespread throughout the Americas. It is a vector for several arboviruses, making it an increasing threat to human health as its range expands. To characterize population genetic structure and gain insight into the origin and spread of this invasive mosquito, we genotyped 959 individuals using ~20k SNPs. We included 50 localities across the Americas, and previously genotyped mosquitoes from 28 localities in Asia and 14 in Europe. Our analyses revealed that populations in North America were distinct from populations in South America, and this relationship was consistently supported across analyses. Most North American mosquitoes shared a common origin with those from Japan and Southern Europe (e.g., Italy, Spain), with the exception of individuals from California, which clustered with more southern areas of East Asia (China and Vietnam), as well as Greece. Brazilian and Argentinian populations were distinct from all other sampled locations, including those in the native range, but were most closely related to mosquitoes from more tropical locations in South and Southeast Asia. By revealing the likely sources of invasions in the Americas, our findings have important implications for understanding invasion dynamics of this species.

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Publication Details

Journal
Insects
Published
2026-07-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/insects17080755
Primary Topic
Mosquito-borne diseases and control
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Population Structure of the Invasive Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus, in the Americas

Tyler D. Pohlenz, Margaret Corley, Xiaoming Wang, Andrea Gloria‐Soria et al.
Insects
Mosquito-borne diseases and control
article

Population Structure of the Invasive Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus, in the Americas

Tyler D. Pohlenz, Margaret Corley, Xiaoming Wang, Andrea Gloria‐Soria, Luciano V. Cosme, Guiyun Yan, Douglas G. Barron, Katie M. Westby, Ademir Jesus Martins, Thomas N. Verna, Peter Armbruster, Patrick Reilly, María Victoria Micieli, John Soghigian, Adalgisa Caccone, Catalina Alfonso-Parra, Kim Medley
article en

Abstract

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is an invasive species that has become widespread throughout the Americas. It is a vector for several arboviruses, making it an increasing threat to human health as its range expands. To characterize population genetic structure and gain insight into the origin and spread of this invasive mosquito, we genotyped 959 individuals using ~20k SNPs. We included 50 localities across the Americas, and previously genotyped mosquitoes from 28 localities in Asia and 14 in Europe. Our analyses revealed that populations in North America were distinct from populations in South America, and this relationship was consistently supported across analyses. Most North American mosquitoes shared a common origin with those from Japan and Southern Europe (e.g., Italy, Spain), with the exception of individuals from California, which clustered with more southern areas of East Asia (China and Vietnam), as well as Greece. Brazilian and Argentinian populations were distinct from all other sampled locations, including those in the native range, but were most closely related to mosquitoes from more tropical locations in South and Southeast Asia. By revealing the likely sources of invasions in the Americas, our findings have important implications for understanding invasion dynamics of this species.

InsectsVol. 17(8)
University of California, Riverside (US), University of Calgary (CA), Georgetown University (US), University of California, Irvine (US), Washington University in St. Louis (US), Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (US), Yale University (US), Universidad de Antioquia (CO), Instituto Colombiano de Medicina Tropical (CO), Public Schools of Robeson County (US), Centro Científico Tecnológico - La Plata (AR), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (BR), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (AR), Texas A&M University (US), Arkansas Tech University (US)
National Institutes of Health
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Mosquito-borne diseases and control
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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