Description of the mitogenome and phylogeny of Aedes spp. (Diptera: Culicidae) from the Amazon region

Abstract

The genus Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae) includes species of great epidemiological relevance, particularly involved in transmission cycles of leading arboviruses in the Brazilian Amazon region, such as the Zika virus (ZIKV), Dengue virus (DENV), Yellow fever virus (YFV), and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV). We report here the first putatively complete sequencing of the mitochondrial genomes of Brazilian populations of the species Aedes albopictus, Aedes scapularis and Aedes serratus. The sequences obtained showed an average length of 14,947 bp, comprising 37 functional subunits, typical in animal mitochondria (13 PCGs, 22 tRNA, and 2 rRNA). The phylogeny reconstructed by Maximum likelihood method, based on the concatenated sequences of all 13 PCGs produced at least two non-directly related groupings, composed of representatives of the subgenus Ochlerotatus and Stegomyia of the genus Aedes. The data and information produced here may be useful for future taxonomic and evolutionary studies of the genus Aedes, as well as the Culicidae family.

Keywords: Aedes; Culicidae; Mitochondrial genome; Mosquitoes; Phylogeny.