One of the most dangerous malaria-carrying mosquitoes is rapidly evolving in response to control efforts, genetics has revealed.
Findings could inform smarter tools to monitor for and fight malaria. 🦟
Read more here ⤵️
http://bit.ly/4pwQKDv
An H12 selection scan shows that strong recent signals of selection centred on canonical insecticide resistance genes are shared by multiple populations. 5/8
This work is the result of a fantastic collaboration between Ayala & team, Dadzie & team, Richard Durbin, Koekemoer & team, @marakat.bsky.social & team, @flygirlnhm.bsky.social , Ochomo & team, Okumu & team, Paaijmans & team, Tchouassi & team, Wondji & team and @gsugenomics.bsky.social . 8/8
Preprint is out! We investigated the genomic diversity and evolutionary history of Anopheles funestus mosquitoes, one of the main species transmitting human malaria across Africa. Here’s a visual summary. Art by @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social . 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We sequenced 656 modern specimens (collected 2014-2018) and 45 historic specimens (collected 1927-1967) from 16 African countries. Populations from around the equator have higher genetic diversity and are more connected than populations from south of the equator. 2/8
Our paper Genomic diversity of the African malaria vector Anopheles funestus was published in Science today! It features inversions, selection in action, museum specimens and putative new ecotypes. doi.org/10.1126/scie...
We find that the doublesex gene drive target site is highly conserved within our dataset, which bodes well for using the same population suppression gene drive approach in An. funestus as is underway for An. gambiae. 7/8
Mosquitoes from North Ghana have reduced genetic diversity consistent with a recent bottleneck. The population from South Benin has remarkable inversion frequencies and might be representative of a locally adapted ecotype. 4/8