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Paper Information

Title

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito.

Abstract

Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipiens form molestus, also known as the London Underground mosquito. Population genomic analysis of ~350 contemporary and historical samples counters the popular hypothesis that molestus originated belowground in London <200 years ago. Instead, we show that molestus first adapted to human environments aboveground in the Mediterranean or Middle East over the course of more than 1000 years, possibly in association with ancient agricultural civilizations of the Middle East. Our results highlight the role of early human society in priming taxa for contemporary urban evolution. They also provide insight into whether and how molestus contributes to West Nile virus transmission in modern cities.

Journal

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Citation

Haba Y, , Korlević P, McAlister E, Lawniczak MKN, Schumer M, Rose NH, McBride CS, Aardema ML, Afonso MO, Agramonte NM, Albright J, Alho AM, Almeida APG, Alout H, Alten B, Altinli M, Amara Korba R, Andreadis SS, Anghel V, Arich S, Arsenault-Benoit A, Atyame C, Aubry F, Avila FW, Ayala D, Azrag RS, Babayan L, Bear A, Becker N, Bega AG, Bejarano S, Ben-Avi I, Benoit JB, Boubidi SC, Bradshaw WE, Bravo-Barriga D, Bueno-Marí R, Bušić N, Čabanová V, Cabeje B, Caputo B, Cardo MV, Carpenter S, Carreton E, Chouaïbou MS, Christian M, Coetzee M, Conner WR, Cornel A, Culverwell CL, Cupina AI, De Wolf K, Deblauwe I, Deegan B, Delacour-Estrella S, Della Torre A, Diaz D, Dool SE, Dos Anjos VL, Dugassa S, Ebrahimi B, Eisa SYM, Elissa N, Fallatah SAB, Faraji A, Fedorova MV, Ferrill E, Fonseca DM, Foss KA, Foxi C, França CM, Fricker SR, Fritz ML, Frontera E, Fuehrer HP, Futami K, Ghallab EHS, Girod R, Gordeev MI, Greer D, Gschwind M, Guarido MM, Guat Ney T, Gunay F, Haklay E, Hamad AAE, Hang J, Hardy CM, Hartle JW, Hesson JC, Higa Y, Holzapfel CM, Honnen AC, Ionica AM, Jones L, Kadriaj P, Kamal HA, Kamdem C, Karagodin DA, Kasai S, Kavran M, Khater EIM, Kiene F, Kim HC, Kioulos I, Klein A, Klemenčić M, Klobučar A, Knutson E, Koenraadt CJM, Kothera L, Kreienbühl P, Labbé P, Lachmi I, Lambrechts L, Landeka N, Lee CH, Lessard BD, Leycegui I, Lundström JO, Lustigman Y, MacIntyre C, Mackay AJ, Magori K, Maia C, Malcolm CA, Marquez RO, Martins D, Masri RA, McDivitt G, McMinn RJ, Medina J, Mellor KS, Mendoza J, Merdić E, Mesler S, Mestre C, Miranda H, Miterpáková M, Montarsi F, Moskaev AV, Mu T, Möhlmann TWR, Namias A, Ng'iru I, Ngangué MF, Novo MT, Orshan L, Oteo JA, Otsuka Y, Panarese R, Paredes-Esquivel C, Paronyan L, Peper ST, Petrić DV, Pilapil K, Pou-Barreto C, Puechmaille SJ, Radespiel U, Rahola N, Raman VK, Redouane H, Reiskind MH, Reissen NM, Rice BL, Robert V, Ruiz-Arrondo I, Salamat R, Salamone A, Sarih M, Satta G, Sawabe K, Schaffner F, Schultz KE, Shaikevich EV, Sharakhov IV, Sharakhova MV, Shatara N, Sibataev AK, Sicard M, Smith E, Smith RC, Smitz N, Soriano N, Spanoudis CG, Stone CM, Studentsky L, Sulesco T, Tantely LM, Thao K, Tietze N, Tokarz RE, Tsai KH, Tsuda Y, Turić N, Uhran MR, Unlu I, Van Bortel W, Vardanyan H, Vavassori L, Velo E, Venter M, Vignjević G, Vogels CBF, Volkava T, Vontas J, Ward HM, Wasi Ahmad N, Weill M, West JD, Wheeler SS, White GS, Wipf NC, Wu TP, Yu KD, Zimmermann E, Zittra C. (2025). Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito. Science (New York, N.Y.), 390(6771)

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