title: The Worldwide Spread of the Tiger Mosquito as Revealed by Mitogenome Haplogroup Diversity.
abstract: In the last 40 years, the Asian tiger mosquitoAedes albopictus, indigenous to East Asia, has colonized every continent except Antarctica. Its spread is a major public health concern, given that this species is a competent vector for numerous arboviruses, including those causing dengue, chikungunya, West Nile, and the recently emerged Zika fever. To acquire more information on the ancestral source(s) of adventive populations and the overall diffusion process from its native range, we analyzed the mitogenome variation of 27 individuals from representative populations of Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Phylogenetic analyses revealed five haplogroups in Asia, but population surveys appear to indicate that only three of these (A1a1, A1a2, and A1b) were involved in the recent worldwide spread. We also found out that a derived lineage (A1a1a1) within A1a1, which is now common in Italy, most likely arose in North America from an ancestral Japanese source. These different genetic sources now coexist in many of the recently colonized areas, thus probably creating novel genomic combinations which might be one of the causes of the apparently growing ability ofA. albopictusto expand its geographical range.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenza
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Battaglia
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gabrieli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brandini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Capodiferro
authors.affiliation: Crop Protection Cluster, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños Los Baños, Philippines.
authors.forename: Pio A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Javier
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Guang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Achilli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Semino
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Ludvik M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Gomulski
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Malacrida
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gasperi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torroni
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivieri
keywords: Aedes albopictus; haplogroups; mitochondrial DNA; mitogenomes; tiger mosquito