TWO NOVEL SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISMS IN THE VOLTAGE-GATED SODIUM CHANNEL GENE IDENTIFIED IN AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITOES FROM FLORIDA

Aedes aegypti, the primary vector of dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses, is known to be resistant to pyrethroid-based insecticides in Florida. To improve our knowledge on the mechanism(s) responsible for this resistance, we sequenced 106 Ae. aegypti individuals collected from throughout Florida and examined mutations in a known insecticide resistance gene, voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC; AAEL023266), also commonly known as the knockdown resistance (kdr) gene. Through whole genome sequencing, we identified 2 novel nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), F174I and E478K, and 5 known SNPs, V410L, S723T, V1016I, D1763Y, and Q1853R, of which 4 were reported in Floridian Ae. aegypti for the first time. These SNPs provide a basis for further studies examining their contribution to pyrethroid resistant phenotypes, such as increased time of survival after insecticide exposure. This sequence data can be used to develop a multiplex genotyping assay to investigate the SNP frequencies in a larger number of samples and to examine their phenotypic contribution to pyrethroid resistance in Ae. aegypti.