Mapping of resistance to vegetable polyphenols among Aedes taxa (Diptera, Culicidae) on a molecular phylogeny

To recover some evolutionary aspects of the interaction between culicine la rvae and dietary polyphenols of the vegetation surrounding mosquito breedin g sites, we constructed a phylogeny of the most common French Aedes species , chosen as reference species. We also evaluated the differential resistanc e of these larval taxa to the polyphenols of leaf litter from the riparian vegetation used as a food source. Mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis was p erformed among 14 different taxa and ecotypes (Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictu s, Ae. cantans, Ae. caspius, Ae. cataphylla, Ae. cinereus, Ae. detritus, Ae . geniculatus, Ae. mariae, Ae, pullatus, Ae. punctor, Ae. rusticus, Ae. sti cticus, and Ae. vexans) through direct sequencing of a 763-base segment of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene. Phylogenetic analysis, based on nucl eotide and amino acid sequences, was conducted by means of parsimony and di stance methods, The differential tolerance of larvae to vegetable leaf litt er was comparatively tested by use of 10-month-old alder leaf litter as an experimental standard. The absence of correlation between resistance to pol yphenols and molecular phylogeny suggests that larval adaptation to polyphe nol-rich vegetable breeding sites is a labile character. The acquisition of such resistance appears not to be ancestrally inherited, but rather to be a dynamic adaptation to the environment. Molecular data also support the cl assical morphological classification within the Aedes genus. (C) 2001 Acade mic Press.