Molecular genetics of Aedes aegypti: historical advances and oversights

Abstract

The yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti has a rich history of molecular genetic work but in recent years this has lagged behind rivals such as Anopheles, owing to the nature of control efforts focused on Ae. aegypti and the complex structure of its genome. However, Ae. aegypti has now entered the whole-genomic era of molecular genetics, with many whole genome sequences of individuals now publicly available for analysis. These resources enable an unprecedented view on several core genetic questions that have vexed research on the species for decades. They also create the possibility for new genomic analyses to be developed in the future. In this review, we consider the history of molecular genetic technology as it applies to Ae. aegypti, with a special emphasis on how emerging pictures of the genome both enabled and in some cases constrained the development of work on population genetics and insecticide resistance. We integrate historical and contemporary perspectives to diagnose gaps and biases within the Ae. aegypti literature that require further clarification and research. In particular, these highlight underrepresentation of the Indo-Pacific region in whole genome datasets relative to its dengue burden, and the overlooking of copy number variation in resistance studies owing to difficulties of sequence alignment in duplicated regions, particularly around the glutathione S-transferase epsilon class of genes.