Urban enrichment of molestus ancestry and opposing temperature clines in a metropolitan Culex pipiens hybrid zone

Hybridization between ecologically distinct lineages can fuel rapid adaptation when introgressed alleles are locally favored. The North American Culex pipiens assemblage, a principal West Nile virus vector east of the Mississippi, comprises three lineages---temperate Cx. pipiens f. pipiens , urban-specialist Cx. pipiens f. molestus , and subtropical Cx. quinquefasciatus ---that meet in a mid-Atlantic hybrid zone where temperature and urbanization gradients intersect. Using whole-genome Pool-seq of 24 field populations and three lineage-reference pools across the Baltimore--Washington corridor, we find a weakly differentiated, Cx. pipiens f. pipiens -like background, richer in molestus - and quinquefasciatus -like ancestry toward the warmer end of the corridor. Urbanization impacts allele frequencies across the genome: molestus-like ancestry rises with impervious surface, independently of temperature and position, while Cx. quinquefasciatus -like ancestry does not. An 11.6 Mb chromosome 3 inversion is molestus-like in every population, most of all in urban ones, and tracks genome-wide molestus-like ancestry. Temperature acts locus by locus. On chromosome 1, a cluster of six CYP6 paralogs, a family implicated in insecticide resistance and thermal-stress response, shows rising Cx. quinquefasciatus -like ancestry and read depth with temperature. A chromosome 2 interval centered on a Yan ortholog, a repressor of cell differentiation, shows non- quinquefasciatus ancestry increasing with temperature, consistent with selection against Cx. quinquefasciatus -like introgression. Urban populations therefore carry more ancestry from the human-commensal lineage, while temperature moves ancestry both ways at individual loci. Both molestus and Cx. quinquefasciatus donors carry human-contact traits, so these patterns bear on how warming and urbanization will reshape arboviral risk.

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Publication Details

Journal
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Published
2026-11-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.30.763117
Primary Topic
Genetic diversity and population structure
Type
preprint
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preprint

Urban enrichment of molestus ancestry and opposing temperature clines in a metropolitan Culex pipiens hybrid zone

Katherine L. Bell, Megan Lindsay Fritz, Arielle Arsenault‐Benoit, Benjamin Gregory
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Genetic diversity and population structure
preprint

Urban enrichment of molestus ancestry and opposing temperature clines in a metropolitan Culex pipiens hybrid zone

Katherine L. Bell, Megan Lindsay Fritz, Arielle Arsenault‐Benoit, Benjamin Gregory
preprint en

Abstract

Hybridization between ecologically distinct lineages can fuel rapid adaptation when introgressed alleles are locally favored. The North American Culex pipiens assemblage, a principal West Nile virus vector east of the Mississippi, comprises three lineages---temperate Cx. pipiens f. pipiens , urban-specialist Cx. pipiens f. molestus , and subtropical Cx. quinquefasciatus ---that meet in a mid-Atlantic hybrid zone where temperature and urbanization gradients intersect. Using whole-genome Pool-seq of 24 field populations and three lineage-reference pools across the Baltimore--Washington corridor, we find a weakly differentiated, Cx. pipiens f. pipiens -like background, richer in molestus - and quinquefasciatus -like ancestry toward the warmer end of the corridor. Urbanization impacts allele frequencies across the genome: molestus-like ancestry rises with impervious surface, independently of temperature and position, while Cx. quinquefasciatus -like ancestry does not. An 11.6 Mb chromosome 3 inversion is molestus-like in every population, most of all in urban ones, and tracks genome-wide molestus-like ancestry. Temperature acts locus by locus. On chromosome 1, a cluster of six CYP6 paralogs, a family implicated in insecticide resistance and thermal-stress response, shows rising Cx. quinquefasciatus -like ancestry and read depth with temperature. A chromosome 2 interval centered on a Yan ortholog, a repressor of cell differentiation, shows non- quinquefasciatus ancestry increasing with temperature, consistent with selection against Cx. quinquefasciatus -like introgression. Urban populations therefore carry more ancestry from the human-commensal lineage, while temperature moves ancestry both ways at individual loci. Both molestus and Cx. quinquefasciatus donors carry human-contact traits, so these patterns bear on how warming and urbanization will reshape arboviral risk.

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Texas State University (US), University of Maryland Global Campus (US), University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Genetic diversity and population structure
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