Dengue emergence and adaptation to peridomestic mosquitoes.

TLDR: Endemic dengue virus (DENV) type 2 strains infect Aedes aegypti and Ae.

Abstract: Phylogenetic evidence suggests that endemic and epidemic dengue viruses (DENV), transmitted among humans by the anthropophilic mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Ae albopictus, emerged when ancestral, sylvatic DENV transmitted among nonhuman primates by sylvatic Aedes mosquitoes adapted to these peridomestic vectors We tested this hypothesis by retrospectively examining evidence for adaptation of epidemic and endemic versus sylvatic strains of DENV-2 to Ae albopictus and Ae aegypti First and second-generation offspring of mosquitoes from different geographic regions in the Americas and Southeast Asia were tested for their susceptibility to epidemic/endemic and sylvatic DENV-2 isolates from West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania Both Aedes species were highly susceptible (up to 100% infected) to endemic/epidemic DENV-2 strains after ingesting artificial blood meals but significantly less susceptible (as low as 0%) to sylvatic DENV-2 strains Our findings support the hypothesis that adaptation to peridomestic mosquito vectors mediated dengue emergence from sylvatic progenitor viruses