Life Sciences Commons^™

Evolutionary Enhancement Of Zika Virus Infectivity In Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes, Yang Liu, Jianying Liu, Senyan Du, Cheng-Feng Qin, Penghua Wang, Pei-Yong Shi, Gong Cheng

NYMC Faculty Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) remained obscure until the recent explosive outbreaks in French Polynesia (2013-2014) and South America (2015-2016). Phylogenetic studies have shown that ZIKV has evolved into African and Asian lineages. The Asian lineage of ZIKV was responsible for the recent epidemics in the Americas. However, the underlying mechanisms through which ZIKV rapidly and explosively spread from Asia to the Americas are unclear. Non-structural protein 1 (NS1) facilitates flavivirus acquisition by mosquitoes from an infected mammalian host and subsequently enhances viral prevalence in mosquitoes. Here we show that NS1 antigenaemia determines ZIKV infectivity in its mosquito vector Aedes aegypti, which …