Data from: Evidence that implicit assumptions of ‘no evolution’ of disease vectors in changing environments can be violated on a rapid timescale

Projected impacts of climate change on vector-borne disease dynamics must consider many variables relevant to hosts, vectors and pathogens, including how altered environmental characteristics might affect the spatial distributions of vector species. However, many predictive models for vector distributions consider their habitat requirements to be fixed over relevant time-scales, when they may actually be capable of rapid evolutionary change and even adaptation. We examine the genetic signature of a spatial expansion by an invasive vector into locations with novel temperature conditions compared to its native range as a proxy for how existing vector populations may respond to temporally changing habitat. Specifically, we compare invasions into different climate ranges and characterize the importance of selection from the invaded habitat. We demonstrate that vector species can exhibit evolutionary responses (altered allelic frequencies) to a temperature gradient in as little as 7–10 years even in the presence of high gene flow, and further, that this response varies depending on the strength of selection. We interpret these findings in the context of climate change predictions for vector populations and emphasize the importance of incorporating vector evolution into models of future vector-borne disease dynamics.

气候变化对媒介传播疾病动态的预估影响，必须考量与宿主、媒介生物（vector）和病原体相关的诸多变量，其中包括环境特征改变如何影响媒介生物物种的空间分布。然而，当前诸多用于预测媒介生物分布的模型，均假设其栖息地需求在相关时间尺度上固定不变，但实际上媒介生物可发生快速的演化改变，甚至产生适应性进化。本研究以一种入侵性媒介生物的空间扩张事件为研究对象，该媒介生物入侵了与其原生分布区温度条件迥异的生境，以此作为现有媒介生物种群如何响应随时间变化的栖息地的替代指标（proxy）；具体而言，本研究对比了入侵不同气候区的事件，并阐明了入侵生境带来的选择压力的重要性。本研究证实，即使存在高强度的基因流，媒介生物物种仍可在短短7至10年内对温度梯度产生演化响应，表现为等位基因频率（allelic frequencies）的改变，且该响应的强弱取决于选择压力的强度。最后，本研究结合媒介生物种群的气候变化预测背景解读上述发现，并强调将媒介生物演化纳入未来媒介传播疾病动态模型的重要性。