Characteristics of Aedes albopictus mitogenome in the Pacific islands and their implications for whole genome sequence data analysis

In the last decade arboviral disease outbreaks have significantly increased in the Pacific Islands. Any application of new mosquito control technologies in the region will improve health of the population living in there. The development of novel transgenic Aedes to improve existing Sterile Insect Technique methods is actively ongoing. However, these control measures cannot be safely applied without a phased testing approach that initially focuses on the ecosystem of the organism within the region. Therefore, the ability to conduct safe and controlled field trials is of great need. Islands have been cited as ideal settings for both caged and open field trials. A portion of Kwajalein Atoll, which is in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and leased by the United States Government, may be a good location to test these novel technologies given the islets’ accessibility, small size and isolation from one another. In our effort to investigate population connectivity of Ae. albopictus populations in the region, we sequenced the whole genomes of Ae. albopictus populations in various islands in the Pacific. Our preliminary analysis indicates that optimal nuclear genome mapping of Ae. albopictus requires prior filtering and removal of mitochondrial reads, similar to the analysis pipeline used for Ae. aegypti. Phylogenetic trees were constructed to investigate genetic relatedness of Ae. albopictus from the Pacific Islands in comparison to other regions of interest in an attempt to obtain an estimate geographic origin. Samples collected from Kwajalein atoll seem to be polyphyletic with samples from Italy, Greece and China.