Login / Signup

Evolutionary adaptation under climate change: Aedes sp. demonstrates potential to adapt to warming.

Lisa I CouperTristram O DodgeJames A HemkerBernard Y KimMoises Exposito-AlonsoRachel B BremErin A MordecaiMark C Bitter
Published in: bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (2024)
Global change may have profound impacts on the distribution of mosquito-borne diseases, which collectively cause nearly one million deaths each year. Accurately predicting these impacts is critical for disease control preparedness, and will depend, in part, on whether mosquitoes can adapt to warming-a key open question. Using experimental and genomic data from a relative of major vector species that already experiences a wide thermal gradient, we find that natural mosquito populations have high levels of genetically-based variation in heat tolerance that could enable adaptation on pace with warming. Incorporating the potential for adaptive responses may therefore be necessary for accurate predictions of mosquito-borne disease distributions under warming, which is critical for preparing mosquito control interventions.
Keyphrases