# Genetic basis for host preference in Culex pipiens

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2020 · $399,031

## Abstract

Project Summary
 When seeking blood, mosquito species are often biased toward one host over others, and this can
significantly impact their likelihood of transmitting disease to humans. It is becoming increasingly clear that
host seeking biases are genomically based, but significant gaps in our knowledge of the exact genomic drivers
of these biases still exist. In the case of Culex pipiens, very little is known about what genes drive host location
and feeding behaviors, and yet they are the primary vectors of West Nile virus (WNV) to humans across the
Northeastern United States. WNV is typically transmitted from bird to bird by the bite of a Cx. pipiens
mosquito, but human outbreaks occur annually. The two inter-fertile forms of Cx. pipiens, known as true
pipiens and molestus, complicate the WNV transmission picture. True pipiens breeds above ground and is
thought to primarily feed on birds, while molestus breeds below ground near human habitations, and feeds on
mammals, including humans. The current paradigm is that interbreeding between molestus and the above
ground pipiens forms leads to heightened human WNV transmission. Our research aims to empirically test this
paradigm by: 1) quantifying the behaviors of above ground pipiens, below ground molestus and their hybrids in
response to avian and mammalian hosts, and linking host choices to underlying genomic regions in a
laboratory setting, 2) field-collecting avian and mammal-fed Cx. pipiens to determine which regions of the
mosquito genome are associated with divergent host feeding, and 3) using a well-established epidemiological
model to measure the effect of hybridization between the avian- and mammalian-feeding forms of Cx. pipiens
on WNV transmission risk in humans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9964647
- **Project number:** 5R01AI125622-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** Megan Lindsay Fritz
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $399,031
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9964647

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9964647, Genetic basis for host preference in Culex pipiens (5R01AI125622-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9964647. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*