Background: In the last four decades, the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, vector of several human arboviruses, has spread from its native range in South-East Asia to all over the world, largely through the transportation of its eggs via the international trade in used tires. Albania was the first country invaded in Europe in 1979, followed by Italy in 1990 and other Mediterranean countries after 2000.
Methods/principal findings: We here inferred the invasion history and migration patterns of Ae. albopictus in Italy (today the most heavily-infested country in Europe), Greece and Albania, by analyzing a panel of >100,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained by sequencing of double-digest Restriction site-Associated DNA (ddRADseq). The obtained dataset was combined with samples previously analyzed from both the native and invasive range worldwide to interpret the results using a broader spatial and historical context. The emerging evolutionary scenario complements the results of other studies in showing that the extraordinary worldwide expansion of Ae. albopictus has occurred thanks to multiple independent invasions by large numbers of colonists from multiple geographic locations in both native and previously invaded areas, consistently with the role of used tires shipments to move large numbers of eggs worldwide. By analyzing mosquitoes from nine sites across ~1,000-km transect in Italy, we were able to detect a complex interplay of drift, isolation by distance mediated divergence, and gene flow in shaping the species very recent invasion and range expansion, suggesting overall high connectivity, likely due to passive transportation of adults via ground transportation, as well as specific adaptations to local conditions.
Conclusions/significance: Results contribute to characterize one of the most successful histories of animal invasion, and could be used as a baseline for future studies to track epidemiologically relevant characters (e.g. insecticide resistance).