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. 2023 Apr 10;108(5):987-994.
doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.22-0511. Print 2023 May 3.

Exploring the Mosquito-Arbovirus Network: A Survey of Vector Competence Experiments

Binqi Chen  1 , Amy R Sweeny  1   2 , Velen Y Wu  1 , Rebecca C Christofferson  3 , Gregory Ebel  4 , Anna C Fagre  4 , Emily Gallichotte  4 , Rebekah C Kading  4 , Sadie J Ryan  5   6   7 , Colin J Carlson  1   8   9
Affiliations

Exploring the Mosquito-Arbovirus Network: A Survey of Vector Competence Experiments

Binqi Chen et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg. .

Abstract

Arboviruses receive heightened research attention during major outbreaks or when they cause unusual or severe clinical disease, but they are otherwise undercharacterized. Global change is also accelerating the emergence and spread of arboviral diseases, leading to time-sensitive questions about potential interactions between viruses and novel vectors. Vector competence experiments help determine the susceptibility of certain arthropods to a given arbovirus, but these experiments are often conducted in real time during outbreaks, rather than with preparedness in mind. We conducted a systematic review of reported mosquito-arbovirus competence experiments, screening 570 abstracts to arrive at 265 studies testing in vivo arboviral competence. We found that more than 90% of potential mosquito-virus combinations are untested in experimental settings and that entire regions and their corresponding vectors and viruses are undersampled. These knowledge gaps stymie outbreak response and limit attempts to both build and validate predictive models of the vector-virus network.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Number of studies that have experimentally tested a given arbovirus–mosquito pair. Abbreviations follow naming conventions in virology. *Rhabdoviridae; **orbivirus.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Number of studies that have experimentally tested a given arbovirus–mosquito genus pair (as in Figure 1). Abbreviations follow naming conventions in virology. *Rhabdoviridae; **orbivirus.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Number of studies over time, broken down by the 10 viruses that appeared in the most studies. (Opacity is proportional to the number of studies in any given year.) Tick marks represent notable outbreaks that motivated further inquiry, broken down by pathogen and sourced from primary literature, including the WHO Disease Outbreak News. In some cases, outbreaks for one disease may have increased interest in others (e.g., CHIKV in India in 2005 and ZIKV virus in Yap in 2007 were followed by substantial renewed interest in dengue; the emergence of CHIKV and ZIKV in the Americas in 2013–2015 appear to have been accompanied by incidental research on Japanese encephalitis virus, likely in many of the same experiments). Dashed tick marks indicate other notable developments in virus history. Featured outbreaks include CHIKV: 2005 – India; 2011 – New Caledonia; 2013 – the Americas; 2017 – Italy; 2019 – Republic of the Congo. DENV: 1996 – the Americas; 2000 – DENV-3 introduced to Brazil; 2002 – Brazil; 2009 – the Americas; 2013 – Southeast Asia; 2019 – the Americas. JEV: 1995 – Australia; 1996 – Nepal; 1999 – India; 2005 – India; 2009 – WHO WPRO and SEARO reference laboratories for Japanese encephalitis established (dashed line). RFV: 2006 – East Africa. SLEV: 1990 – Florida; 2005 – Argentina. VEEV: 1995 – Colombia and Venezuela; 1998 – Colombia; 2011 – Colombia and Venezuela. WNV: 1999 – United States; 2011 – Europe and, unrelated, Australia (Kunjin virus). WEEV: 1994 – last known human case in North America (dashed line); 2009 – Uruguay. YFV: 1999 – South America and importation into the United States; 2000 – Guinea; 2001 – Côte d’Ivoire; 2005 – Sudan; 2012 – Sudan; 2015 – Angola and DRC; 2016 – Brazil; 2018 – Brazil. ZIKV: 2007 – Yap Island; 2013 – French Polynesia; 2015 – the Americas.–
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Number of studies that used mosquitoes sourced from a given country. Values range from 1 (dark purple) to more than 100 (dark red); countries with no records are left blank.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
The number of pathogens (out of a total of 35 distinct viruses recorded in our review) that has been tested using mosquitoes sourced from a given country. Values range from 1 (dark purple) to more than 100 (dark red); countries with no records are left blank.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Network visualization of arbovirus (green) and mosquito (yellow) pairs experimentally tested. Notably, any observable network of compatible species would be constrained to “fit” inside this sampling-based network, highlighting how experimental effort determines observable pairs of compatible species more than their biology. Abbreviations follow naming conventions in virology. Nodes represent virus and mosquito species, where node size is proportional to the number of studies involving each (range for mosquitoes: 1–136; range for viruses: 1–109). Edges represent a record of an experimentally tested pair, where edge weight is proportion to the number of studies returned for each pair (range: 1–47). Edges do not record species compatibility.
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