Data from: Evolutionary potential of the extrinsic incubation period of dengue virus in Aedes aegypti

Dengue fever is the most common arboviral disease worldwide. It is caused by dengue viruses (DENV) and the mosquito Aedes aegypti is its primary vector. One of the most powerful determinants of a mosquito's ability to transmit DENV is the length of the extrinsic incubation period (EIP), the time it takes for a virus to be transmitted by a mosquito after consuming an infected blood meal. Here, we repeatedly measured DENV load in the saliva of individual mosquitoes over their lifetime and used this in combination with a breeding design to determine the extent to which EIP might respond to the evolutionary forces of drift and selection. We demonstrated that genetic variation among mosquitoes contributes significantly to transmission potential and length of EIP. We reveal that shorter EIP is genetically correlated with reduced mosquito lifespan, highlighting negative life-history consequences for virus-infected mosquitoes. This work highlights the capacity for local genetic variation in mosquito populations to evolve and to dramatically affect the nature of human outbreaks. It also provides the impetus for isolating mosquito genes that determine EIP. More broadly, our dual experimental approach offers new opportunities for studying the evolutionary potential of transmission traits in other vector/pathogen systems.

登革热是全球范围内最为常见的虫媒病毒性疾病，其病原体为登革病毒（Dengue viruses, DENV），埃及伊蚊（Aedes aegypti）是该疾病的主要传播媒介。决定蚊子传播登革病毒能力的最为关键的决定因素之一，便是外潜伏期（extrinsic incubation period, EIP）——即蚊子吸食受感染血餐后传播病毒所需的时长。本研究在蚊子的整个生命周期内，反复检测单只蚊子唾液中的DENV载量，并结合育种实验设计，以明确外潜伏期在多大程度上会受到遗传漂变与自然选择的进化压力作用。研究证实，蚊子种群内的遗传变异对病毒传播潜力及外潜伏期时长具有显著贡献。研究同时发现，较短的外潜伏期与蚊子寿命缩短存在遗传相关性，这揭示了感染病毒的蚊子所面临的负面生活史代价。本研究凸显了蚊子种群中本地遗传变异的进化潜能，及其对人类登革热暴发特征的显著影响，同时为分离调控外潜伏期的蚊子基因提供了研究契机。从更广泛的视角来看，本研究采用的双重实验方法，为探究其他媒介-病原体系统中传播性状的进化潜力提供了全新的研究路径。