Leveraging evolutionary forces to improve SIT control for arboviruses

While millions last year were infected with an arbovirus following a bite from a female Aedes mosquito, male mosquitoes are central to new interventions for these diseases. Releases of sterile males have been used to successfully suppress Aedes vector populations and decrease transmission risk in several locations. However, these successes have been contingent on maintaining high ratios of released males to wild males which are difficult to sustain and limit the scale of implementation. Success in these strategies requires released males to cause reproductive failure in wild females. Large numbers of males are required because males used in releases tend to be relatively poor at obtaining matings. Our previous work indicates sexual selection is an important evolutionary force that maintains both male competitiveness and population level genetic diversity. This project endeavors to improve the efficiency and sustainability of control by harnessing sexual selection to improve male performance. We will evolve replicate populations of Aedes aegypti under varying intensities of sexual selection and will measure the effect of these selective environments on male competitiveness, colony productivity, and predicted population suppression efficiency. This application of evolutionary biology to control will advance the science underpinning an important new group of control tools.