@article{2596939950b448f294b7d3e2dd38774f,
title = "Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito",
abstract = "Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipiens form molestus, also known as the London Underground mosquito. Population genomic analysis of ~350 contemporary and historical samples counters the popular hypothesis that molestus originated belowground in London <200 years ago. Instead, we show that molestus first adapted to human environments aboveground in the Mediterranean or Middle East over the course of more than 1000 years, possibly in association with ancient agricultural civilizations of the Middle East. Our results highlight the role of early human society in priming taxa for contemporary urban evolution. They also provide insight into whether and how molestus contributes to West Nile virus transmission in modern cities.",
keywords = "Animals, Culex/genetics, Humans, Biological Evolution, London, Cities, West Nile Fever/transmission, Middle East, Mosquito Vectors/genetics, Adaptation, Physiological/genetics, West Nile virus",
author = "{PipPop Consortium‡} and Yuki Haba and Petra Korlevi{\'c} and Erica McAlister and Lawniczak, {Mara K N} and Molly Schumer and Rose, {Noah H} and McBride, {Carolyn S} and Aardema, {Matthew L} and Afonso, {Maria O} and Agramonte, {Natasha M} and John Albright and Alho, {Ana Margarida} and Almeida, {Antonio P G} and Haoues Alout and Bulent Alten and Mine Altinli and {Amara Korba}, Raouf and Andreadis, {Stefanos S} and Vincent Anghel and Soukaina Arich and Arielle Arsenault-Benoit and C{\'e}lestine Atyame and Fabien Aubry and Avila, {Frank W} and Diego Ayala and Azrag, {Rasha S} and Lilit Babayan and Allon Bear and Norbert Becker and Bega, {Anna G} and Sophia Bejarano and Ira Ben-Avi and Benoit, {Joshua B} and Boubidi, {Sa{\"i}d C} and Bradshaw, {William E} and Daniel Bravo-Barriga and Rub{\'e}n Bueno-Mar{\'i} and Nata{\v s}a Bu{\v s}i{\'c} and Viktoria {\v C}abanov{\'a} and Brittany Cabeje and Beniamino Caputo and Cardo, {Maria V} and Simon Carpenter and Elena Carreton and Choua{\"i}bou, {Mouhamadou S} and Michelle Christian and Maureen Coetzee and Conner, {William R} and Isra Deblauwe and {Van Bortel}, Wim",
note = "FTX abonnement",
year = "2025",
doi = "10.1101/2025.01.26.634793",
language = "English",
volume = "390",
pages = "eady4515",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "6771",
}