Molecular phylogenetics of Aedes aegypti (L., 1762) (Diptera: Culicidae) in Eastern Black Sea area of Turkey and possible relations with the Caucasian invasion

Abstract

Aedes aegypti (L., 1762) (Diptera: Culicidae) is an important pest for human health. It vectors many diseases, including yellow fever (YF), dengue (DENV), and chikungunya (CHIKV). This species has invaded numerous countries including Balkan and Caucasian countries few past decades. The established populations of species were found in Turkey in 2015. We investigated the genetic variation, molecular phylogenetics, and differences between samples from Turkey and Georgia using four mitochondrial and one genomic DNA markers. The possible origin of the species was determined separately for each gene region using maximum likelihood trees. The ML analysis showed a close relation with the Caucasian samples, and some haplotypes are specific to this region. Our results suggest that Turkish Ae. aegypti strains might have been a mix of Asian and American strains. The differences between Turkish and Georgian samples were statistically insignificant and values of difference were very low according to AMOVA. Pairwise difference values between the two countries indicated that populations may have the same origin and variation value between two countries is very low. As a conclusion, our results revealed that our region (Turkey and Georgia) samples were most probably a new invasion rather than an ancient one.