Abstract
The sustainability of malaria control in Africa is threatened by the rise of insecticide resistance in Anopheles mosquitoes, which transmit the disease1. To gain a deeper understanding of how mosquito populations are evolving, here we sequenced the genomes of 765 specimens of Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles coluzzii sampled from 15 locations across Africa, and identified over 50 million single nucleotide polymorphisms within the accessible genome. These data revealed complex population structure and patterns of gene flow, with evidence of ancient expansions, recent bottlenecks, and local variation in effective population size. Strong signals of recent selection were observed in insecticide-resistance genes, with several sweeps spreading over large geographical distances and between species. The design of new tools for mosquito control using gene-drive systems will need to take account of high levels of genetic diversity in natural mosquito populations.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 96-100 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 552 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 7 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the staff of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Sample Logistics, Sequencing and Informatics facilities for their contributions. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (090770/Z/09/Z; 090532/Z/09/Z; 098051) and Medical Research Council UK and the Department for International Development (DFID) (MR/M006212/1). M.K.N.L. was supported by MRC grant G1100339. S.O.’L. and A.B. were supported by a grant from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health through the Vector-Based Control of Transmission: Discovery Research (VCTR) program of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. D.W., C.S.W., H.D.M. and M.J.D. were supported by Award Numbers U19AI089674 and R01AI082734 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAID or NIH. T.A. was supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship.
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