Autor(es): Fonzi, Eugenio; Higa, Yukiko; Bertuso, Arlene G; Futami, Kyoko; Minakawa, Noboru

Resumo: Dengue fever threatens the health of millions in the tropics and its causative agent, dengue virus, is mainly transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. To control the spread of the virus, insecticides have been abundantly used but Ae. aegypti has developed a genetic resistance to them. Currently, alternative methods are being tested wherein artificially modified mosquitos are released in the wild to interfere with the mating of natural populations. It is important then to understand how the mosquito spreads in the environment. It is known that Ae. aegytpi can be passively transported for long distances by human vehicles, but it was not clear how common this event is, especially in case of marine transportation. In population genetics, a basic assumption says that if populations frequently exchange migrants, they become genetically more similar than relatively isolated populations. We estimated the genetic similarity between Ae. aegypti collected in the Philippines from 15 seaports of different sizes and ship connectivity. The mosquitos from busy ports, even distant ones, were genetically similar, while in the small ports, even close ones, Ae. aegypti were relatively differentiated. It was also suggested that Ae. aegypti's dispersal is affected by cargo shipments more than passenger ships.

Palavras-Chave: Population genetics; Human diseases; Natural populations; Archipelagoes; Pest control; Harbours; Aquatic insects; Marine transportation; Public health; Dengue virus; Aedes aegypti; Marine

Imprenta: Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases, v. 9, n. 6, 2015.

Descritores: Aedes aegypti - Virus ; Aedes aegypti - Dengue

Data de publicação: 2015

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