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Culex pipiens , an invasive mosquito and vector of West Nile virus in the US, has two morphologically indistinguishable forms that differ dramatically in behavior and physiology.  Cx. pipiens  form pipiens is primarily a bird-feeding temperate mosquito, while the sub-tropical  Cx. pipiens  form molestus thrives in sewers and feeds on mammals. Because the feral form can diapause during the cold winters but the domestic form cannot, the two  Cx. pipiens  forms are allopatric in northern Europe and, although viable, hybrids are rare.  Cx. pipiens  form molestus has spread across all inhabited continents and hybrids of the two forms are common in the US. Here we elucidate the genes and gene families with the greatest divergence rates between these phenotypically diverged mosquito populations, and discuss them in light of their potential biological and ecological effects. After generating and assembling novel transcriptome data for each population, we performed pairwise tests for nonsynonymous divergence (Ka) of homologous coding sequences and examined gene ontology terms that were statistically over-represented in those sequences with the greatest divergence rates. We identified genes involved in digestion (serine endopeptidases), innate immunity (fibrinogens and  α -macroglobulins), hemostasis (D7 salivary proteins), olfaction (odorant binding proteins) and chitin binding (peritrophic matrix proteins). By examining molecular divergence between closely related yet phenotypically divergent forms of the same species, our results provide insights into the identity of rapidly-evolving genes between incipient species. Additionally, we found that families of signal transducers, ATP synthases and transcription regulators remained identical at the amino acid level, thus constituting conserved components of the  Cx. pipiens  proteome. We provide a reference with which to gauge the divergence reported in this analysis by performing a comparison of transcriptome sequences from conspecific (yet allopatric) populations of another member of the  Cx. pipiens  complex,  Cx. quinquefasciatus .

Genetic divergence between populations of feral and domestic forms of a mosquito disease vector assessed by transcriptomics