Extrinsic Incubation Rate is Not Accelerated in Recent California Strains of West Nile Virus in Culex tarsalis (Diptera: Culicidae).

ABSTRACT: The efficiency of West Nile virus (WNV) transmission by competent mosquito vectors is driven by temperature and defined, in part, by the extrinsic incubation period, which is the time from a mosquito's consumption of an infected bloodmeal until it becomes capable of transmitting the virus to the next vertebrate host. The extrinsic incubation period can be altered by a variety of factors involved in vector-pathogen interactions, and in North America, the WN02 strain of WNV emerged and displaced the founding NY99 strain reportedly because the duration of the extrinsic incubation period in Culex mosquitoes was shortened by a single positively selected mutation. However, recent work has suggested that this change is not universal and may depend on vector species or strain. In the current study

SUBMITTER: Danforth ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4574603 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature