Genetic mapping a meiotic driver that causes sex ratio distortion in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

An endogenous meiotic driver in the dengue and yellow fever vector mosquito Aedes aegypti can cause highly male-biased sex ratio distortion in crosses from suitable genetic backgrounds. We previously selected a strain that carries a strong meiotic drive gene (D) linked with the male-determining allele (M) on chromosome 1 in A. aegypti. Here we performed segregation analysis of the MD locus among backcross (BC1) progeny from a driver male and drive-sensitive females. Assessment of sex ratios among BC2 progeny showed ~5.2% recombination between the MD locus and the sex determination locus. Multipoint linkage mapping across this region revealed consistent marker orders and recombination frequencies with the existing reference linkage map and placed the MD locus within a 6.5 cM interval defined by the LF159 locus and microsatellite marker 446GAA, which should facilitate future positional cloning efforts.