ArticleCurrent biology : CB2020
Climate and Urbanization Drive Mosquito Preference for Humans.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 159 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
159 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Climatic, Socioecological and Environmental Determinants of Aedes spp. Dynamics at the Community Interface: A Systematic Review With Reflections From a One Health Perspective.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analyses of Culex blood-meals indicates strong regional effect on feeding patterns.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Behavioral determinants of disease transmission by mosquitoes.Current opinion in insect science · 2026Review
- Willingness to accept the Dengue vaccine among adult Malaysians - An online survey.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Introgression Shapes Genetic Variation Associated With Humid Environments in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes From Saudi Arabia.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Article
- Mitochondrial phylogeography and insecticide resistance of Aedes aegypti in Kenya.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Landscape Heterogeneity Predicts Mosquito Vector Diversity in a Semi-arid Urbanization.EcoHealth · 2026Article
- Article
- Vector competence acrossJournal of virology · 2026Review
- Impact of Day/Night Cycle Temperature Regimes on Zika Virus Replication in Mosquito Cells and Implications for Transmission Potential.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Geostatistical Modelling and Web-Based Mapping of Malaria Risks Among Children Under Five Years in Nigeria: Evidence From the 2021 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Wolbachia prevalence in Aedes aegypti across five comunas of Medellín, Colombia: Implications for post-release surveillance.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Habitat heterogeneity and seasonal dynamics structure mosquito community composition and vector niche differentiation in an intra-urban landscape of southeastern Gabon.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Genetic divergence in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes potentially associated with enhanced capacity for arbovirus transmission.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Parental exposure to variable saturation deficit shapes the survival and thermotolerance of Aedes aegypti eggs.Journal of insect physiology · 2026Article
- Disentangling Environmental and Within-Host Drivers of Parasite Dynamics in Natural Populations.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Global source-sink dynamics of dengue viruses and epidemic establishment in areas on the fringe of endemic transmission.National science review · 2026Article
- Rapid urban evolution of the dengue mosquito in West African cities.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Convergent enrichment of Gammaproteobacteria along Aedes aegypti development across different breeding sites.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
99 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The majority of mosquito-borne illness is spread by a few mosquito species that have evolved to specialize in biting humans, yet the precise causes of this behavioral shift are poorly understood. We address this gap in the arboviral vector Aedes aegypti. We first collect and characterize the behavior of mosquitoes from 27 sites scattered across the species' ancestral range in sub-Saharan Africa, revealing previously unrecognized variation in preference for human versus animal odor. We then use modeling to show that over 80% of this variation can be predicted by two ecological factors-dry season intensity and human population density. Finally, we integrate this information with whole-genome sequence data from 375 individual mosquitoes to identify a single underlying ancestry component linked to human preference. Genetic changes associated with human specialist ancestry were concentrated in a few chromosomal regions. Our findings suggest that human-biting in this important disease vector originally evolved as a by-product of breeding in human-stored water in areas where doing so provided the only means to survive the long, hot dry season. Our model also predicts that the rapid urbanization currently taking place in Africa will drive further mosquito evolution, causing a shift toward human-biting in many large cities by 2050.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.