Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jun 23;106(25):10230-5. Epub 2009 Jun 5.

    Natural colonization and adaptation of a mosquito species in Galapagos and its implications for disease threats to endemic wildlife.

    Source

    Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.

    Abstract

    Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife have been recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity. Endemic species on isolated oceanic islands, such as the Galápagos, are particularly at risk in the face of introduced pathogens and disease vectors. The black salt-marsh mosquito (Aedes taeniorhynchus) is the only mosquito widely distributed across the Galápagos Archipelago. Here we show that this mosquito naturally colonized the Galápagos before the arrival of man, and since then it has evolved to represent a distinct evolutionary unit and has adapted to habitats unusual for its coastal progenitor. We also present evidence that A. taeniorhynchus feeds on reptiles in Galápagos in addition to previously reported mammal and bird hosts, highlighting the important role this mosquito might play as a bridge-vector in the transmission and spread of extant and newly introduced diseases in the Galápagos Islands. These findings are particularly pertinent for West Nile virus, which can cause significant morbidity and mortality in mammals (including humans), birds, and reptiles, and which recently has spread from an introductory focus in New York to much of the North and South American mainland and could soon reach the Galápagos Islands. Unlike Hawaii, there are likely to be no highland refugia free from invading mosquito-borne diseases in Galápagos, suggesting bleak outcomes to possible future pathogen introduction events.

    PMID:
    19502421
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID: PMC2700888
    Free PMC Article

    Images from this publication.See all images (3) Free text

    Fig. 1.
    Fig. 2.
    Fig. 3.

    Publication Types, MeSH Terms, Secondary Source ID

    Publication Types

    MeSH Terms

    Secondary Source ID

      Supplemental Content

      Click here to read Click here to read

      Recent activity

      Your browsing activity is empty.

      Activity recording is turned off.

      Turn recording back on

      See more...
      Write to the Help Desk