School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-22-2026
Abstract
Simple Summary: The mosquito Aedes aegypti is capable of spreading a wide range of diseases that adversely affect human health. As the mosquito populations expand to new locations and increase in population, the risk to human health increases. To understand how the mosquito is spreading and the genetic composition of the current mosquito population in South Texas, partial DNA sequencing of the cytochrome oxidase I gene was completed for over 100 individuals. The large number of individuals sampled from a small geographic area resulted in new, unique sequences. These new sequences indicate the potential for new responses to pesticides and disease, and the need for increased sampling in other locations due to missing these rarer sequences.
Abstract: Understanding population dynamics and genetics can be critical to understanding distribution, spread, and vectorial capacity of disease vectors. One well-studied disease vector, Aedes aegypti, has been the focus of research due to the wide range of diseases it vectors and the high transmission capabilities. We examined the genetic diversity of A. aegypti utilizing a large number of individual samples from a small geographic range, as opposed to previous studies that focus on a large range and small collection. Using the COI locus, we examined 107 mosquitoes from South Texas, with multiple haplotypes identified. We observed that the samples from South Texas have a unique distribution of haplotypes relative to several invasive global locations from North America, Central America, South America, and Asia. Population measurements suggest a recent population expansion in South Texas, with multiple rare alleles identified. Our intensive sampling strategy using a small geographic scale revealed high levels of diversity not found in non-East African countries and unique haplotypes. We hypothesize that expanding sampling size when studying genetic diversity could help inform movement of mosquitoes. In addition, increased haplotype diversity may be correlated with increased insecticide resistance and differing vector competence.
Recommended Citation
Malampy, Rachel C., Mariana Aguilar, Erin L. Schuenzel, and Christopher J. Vitek. "South Texas Is Home to High Diversity of Cytochrome Oxidase I Haplotypes Compared to Other Invasive Populations of Aedes aegypti." Insects 17, no. 9 (2026): 879. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects17090879
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Insects
DOI
10.3390/insects17090879
Comments
© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.