Mosquito Communities and Insect-Specific Viruses in a Heterogenous, Urban Landscape in Puerto Rico

<p>The goal of my thesis was to investigate the relationships between mosquito diversity, <em>Aedes aegptyi</em> populations, and socioeconomic factors (SEF) in an urban setting and to characterize the virome of <em>Ae. aegypti</em> in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mosquitoes were collected in three periods during late 2018 and early 2019 and were identified to the species level. Socioeconomic factors were measured using foot surveys and U.S. Census data. Some <em>Ae. aegypti </em>females were processed for sequencing and sent to Quick Biology for RNA sequencing to identify viruses. Results showed a link between SEF and <em>Ae. aegypti </em>abundance as well as between SEF and mosquito diversity measures. Lower socioeconomic neighborhoods had both more <em>Ae. aegypti </em>and more diverse communities indicating that control efforts should be focused in these areas. Virome structure was characterized as a basis for further study on insect-specific viruses.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Scavo, Nicole

Contributors dc:contributor

• Donald Yee
• Fengwei Bai
• Roberto Barrera

• Aedes aegypti
• socioeconomics
• urban
• mosquito diversity
• arbovirus
• virome
• Entomology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/716

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1796