John Soghigian

• PhD
• Assistant Professor of Parasitology at University of Calgary

Background Invasive mosquito species are responsible for millions of vector-borne disease cases annually. The global invasive success of Aedes mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus has relied on the human transport of immature stages in container habitats. However, despite the importance of these mosquitoes and this ecological speci...

Parasite modification of host behavior is common, and the literature is dominated by demonstrations of enhanced predation on parasitized prey resulting in transmission of parasites to their next host. We present a case in which predation on parasitized prey is reduced. Despite theoretical modeling suggesting that this phenomenon should be common, i...

Background: Copy number variants (CNVs) are a class of structural variants (SVs) and are defined as fragments of DNA that are present at variable copy number in comparison with a reference genome. Recent advances in bioinformatics methodologies and sequencing technologies have enabled the high-resolution quantification of genome-wide CNVs. In path...

Two invasive mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, have been interacting during the course of a rapid range expansion by A. albopictus. We investigated the potential for interspecific feeding interference by male mosquitoes interacting with females within and between these species. A. aegypti feeding on both sugar and blood was suppressed...

Ascogregarina taiwanensis (Lien and Levine), a protist gut parasite of Aedes albopictus (Skuse), is not known to complete its life cycle within the potential competitor species, Ochlerotatus japonicus (Theobald). In a laboratory cross infection study we demonstrated that A. taiwanensis completed its life cycle within Oc. japonicus and remained infe...

Mosquitoes have profoundly affected human history and continue to threaten human health through the transmission of a diverse array of pathogens. The phylogeny of mosquitoes has remained poorly characterized due to difficulty in taxonomic sampling and limited availability of genomic data beyond the most important vector species. Here, we used phylo...

Mosquitoes have profoundly affected human history and continue to threaten human health through the transmission of a diverse array of viruses and pathogens. Because mosquitoes are also highly diverse and globally widespread, their phylogeny has remained either little known or difficult to discern. Here, we used phylogenomic analysis of 709 ortholo...

Embioptera display variability in egg-handling as part of their defense against natural enemies. Because species living in tropical regions experience potentially higher risks of predation than those in temperate climes, we hypothesized that variable risk might explain this variability. We used actual evapotranspiration (AET) rates as a stand-in fo...

The schizophoran superfamily Ephydroidea (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha) includes eight families, ranging from the well-known vinegar flies (Drosophilidae) and shore flies (Ephydridae), to several small, relatively unusual groups, the phylogenetic placement of which has been particularly challenging for systematists. An extraordinary diversity in life hist...

Target enrichment (such as Hyb-Seq) is a well-established high throughput sequencing method that has been increasingly used for phylogenomic studies. Unfortunately, current widely used pipelines for analysis of target enrichment data do not have a vigorous procedure to remove paralogs in target enrichment data. In this study, we develop a pipeline...

Scientific collections such as the U.S. National Museum (USNM) are critical to filling knowledge gaps in molecular systematics studies. The global taxonomic impediment has resulted in a reduction of expert taxonomists generating new collections of rare or understudied taxa and these large historic collections may be the only reliable source of mate...

Although parasites are by definition costly to their host, demonstrating that a parasite is regulating its host abundance in the field can be difficult. Here we present an example of a gregarine parasite, Ascogregarina taiwanensis Lien and Levine (Apicomplexa: Lecudinidae), regulating its mosquito host, Aedes albopictus Skuse (Diptera: Culicidae),...

Target enrichment and RAD-seq are well-established high throughput sequencing technologies that have been increasingly used for phylogenomic studies, and the choice between methods is a practical issue for plant systematists studying the evolutionary histories of biodiversity of relatively recent origins. However, few studies have compared the cong...

Aedes aegypti is among the best studied mosquitoes due to its critical role as a vector of human pathogens and ease of laboratory rearing. Until now, this species was thought to have originated in continental Africa, and subsequently colonized much of the world following the establishment of global trade routes. However, populations of this mosquit...

The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), is the primary vector of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya fever, among other arboviral diseases. It is also a popular laboratory model in vector biology due to its ease of rearing and manipulation in the lab. Established laboratory strains have been used worldwide in thousands of studies for decades. Laborato...

The first report of Mansonia dyari on Saint Croix, United States Virgin Islands (USVI), is confirmed. Adult and larval specimens were collected in 2018 and 2019 through adult surveillance and larval collections. Specimens were identified by microscopic methods, and a representative specimen was confirmed by DNA sequencing (mitochondrial cytochrome...

The genus Aedes is well known for its desiccation-resistant eggs, which frequently serve as an overwintering mechanism through diapause. Despite this, relatively little is known about the diapause and overwintering biology of most Aedes species including Aedes japonicus japonicus, an invasive mosquito in the United States. The importance of this mo...

Background: The majority of wood decomposing fungi are mushroom-forming Agaricomycetes, which exhibit two main modes of plant cell wall decomposition: white rot, in which all plant cell wall components are degraded, including lignin, and brown rot, in which lignin is modified but not appreciably removed. Previous studies suggested that brown rot f...

Insects from the order Embioptera (webspinners) spin silk fibres which are less than 200 nm in diameter. In this work, we characterized and compared the diameters of single silk fibres from nine species-Antipaluria urichi, Pararhagadochir trinitatis, Saussurembia calypso, Diradius vandykei, Aposthonia ceylonica, Haploembia solieri, H. tarsalis, Oli...

Background Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) (Togaviridae, Alphavirus) is a highly pathogenic mosquito-borne arbovirus that circulates in an enzootic cycle involving Culiseta melanura mosquitoes and wild Passeriformes birds in freshwater swamp habitats. Recently, the northeastern United States has experienced an intensification of virus activity wi...

The combined supporting tables and figures for this manuscript. This document contains Tables A-H and Figures A-H. (DOCX)

Habitat specialization can drive phenotypic diversity. In mosquitoes, specialization to larval container habitats (both natural and artificial) has been important to the success of several invasive mosquito species, notably Aedini disease vectors such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Yet within the Aedini, the largest tribe of mosquitoes, ‘co...

Mixed dispersal strategies are a form of bet hedging in which a species or population utilizes different dispersal strategies dependent upon biotic or abiotic conditions. Here we provide an example of a mixed dispersal strategy in the Aedes albopictus / Ascogregarina taiwanensis host/parasite system, wherein upon host emergence, the gregarine paras...

The percentage of oocysts in the adult, plotted by the wing length of adult, the sex of the mosquito (rows), and the dosage of parasites (columns). There was no relationship between the body size of mosquitoes and proportion of oocysts remaining in the adult; however, there was a significant effect of sex. (TIF)

The percentage of oocysts in the adult, plotted by the time to emergence of the mosquito, the sex of the mosquito (rows), and the dosage of parasites (columns). There was no relationship between time to emergence and proportion of oocysts remaining in the adult, though sex had a significant effect on time to emergence. (TIF)

Supplemental tables A through G are attached as supplemental material. (DOCX)

Ixodes scapularis Say 1821, the primary vector of several human pathogens in the northeastern and upper Midwestern United States, has considerable genetic and morphological variation throughout its range. Recently, developmental or teratological abnormalities have been observed in this species for the first time, further complicating morphological...

The use of rRNA/DNA ratios derived from surveys of rRNA sequences in RNA and DNA extracts is an appealing but poorly validated approach to infer the activity status of environmental microbes. To improve the interpretation of rRNA/DNA ratios, we performed simulations to investigate the effects of community structure, rRNA amplification, and sampling...

For the majority of the twentieth century, mosquito genera were defined by morphological characters useful in differential identification. Since 2000, there has been a rapid increase in the number of genera within the family, primarily due to the elevation of subgenera from within the genus Aedes. These elevations were based upon cladistics analyse...

For the majority of the twentieth century, mosquito genera were defined by morphological characters useful in differential identification. Since 2000, there has been a rapid increase in the number of genera within the family, primarily due to the elevation of subgenera from within the genus Aedes. These elevations were based upon cladistics analyse...

Behavioral modification of hosts by parasites is common, with this modification often resulting in enhancement of predation upon the host. Far less frequently reported is predation suppression by a parasite, wherein a parasite suppresses predation on its host. Here we present an example of predation suppression by gregarine endosymbionts in host mo...

Two invasive mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, have been interacting during the course of a rapid range expansion by A. albopictus. We investigated the potential for interspecific feeding interference by male mosquitoes interacting with females within and between these species. A. aegypti feeding on both sugar and blood was suppressed...

The dilution effect is the hypothesis that as diversity of species in a community increases, the prevalence of a disease decreases. This effect has been observed in the field, though such research has focused primarily on the Lyme disease-deer tick system, and it is unknown how broadly applicable the dilution effect is. Here we describe the results...

Ascogregarina taiwanensis is a protist symbiont of Aedes albopictus and occasionally other non-native hosts with which Aedes albopictus can co-occur. Typically described as having little to no consequence on its native host, Ascogregarina taiwanensis has none the less been considered as a potential biocontrol agent of mosquito species in which it i...

As larvae, Aedes triseriatus are preyed upon by Toxorhynchites rutilus in the southern part of their range. As a result, a number of experiments have been done to study the interaction between the two species. However, none of these studies have considered the impact of Ascogregarina barretti, a gregarine parasite of Ae. triseriatus, on these preda...

##Assembly-Data-START## Assembly Method :: Geneious v. 5.6 Sequencing Technology :: ABI 3130 ##Assembly-Data-END##