A Gene-Based Method for Cytogenetic Mapping of Repeat-Rich Mosquito Genomes

摘要

Mosquitoes from the family Culicidae are vectors of numerous human diseases such as dengue, Zika, and West Nile fevers, malaria, and lymphatic filariasis. The availability of high-quality genome assemblies for mosquitoes assists in identifying genes responsible for important epidemiological traits such as vector competence, insecticide resistance, and mosquito behavior and stimulates a better understanding of the genetic structure of mosquito populations. Thus, the development of genomic resources and tools is a necessary step for designing and implementing novel genome-based approaches to control mosquitoes. The emphasis of this study is the further development and optimization of a physical genome mapping approach. Physical mapping is placing genomic scaffolds to the chromosomes based on hybridization of the specific probes. This task is difficult for mosquitoes with large genome sizes which are enriched with repetitive DNA sequences and can be potentially misassembled. Here, we describe in detail a simple and robust technique for the physical mapping of such mosquito genomes. This method can be further used for physical genome mapping in other mosquitoes and insects.