Publications by authors named "D Porretta"

Understanding the genomic consequences of hybridization is an essential research focus in global change biology. Species adapted to rapidly changing environments can offer valuable, yet largely underexplored insights in this context. Here, we present the first de novo transcriptomes of the sea-rock pools mosquitoes Aedes mariae and Aedes zammitii, two species adapted to highly variable habitats.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on five species of Phortica flies in Europe and the Middle East, particularly Phortica variegata and Phortica okadai, known as vectors for the zoonotic eyeworm Thelazia callipaeda, in a region near Rome, Italy.
  • Over three years (2018-2020), researchers collected and identified nearly 5,600 flies, revealing a dominance of Phortica variegata, which was found to be infected with T. callipaeda, while Phortica oldenbergi showed differing behavior in fruit traps.
  • Environmental factors like temperature, wind speed, and pressure influenced the population dynamics of these species, with the study being the first to explore these ecological interactions
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Background: Mosquitoes (Culicidae), as disease vectors, represent a risk for human health worldwide. Repeated introductions of alien mosquito species and the spread of invasive species have been recorded in different countries. Traditionally, identification of mosquitoes relies on morphological observation.

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We present a de novo transcriptome of the mosquito vector Culex pipiens, assembled by sequences of susceptible and insecticide resistant larvae. The high quality of the assembly was confirmed by TransRate and BUSCO. A mapping percentage until 94.

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Sexual dimorphism is almost ubiquitous in animals. A common pattern observed across multiple taxa involves differences in development time (sexual bimaturism) and body size (sexual size dimorphism) between conspecific males and females. Furthermore, a strict association of dimorphism at these traits has been documented in several taxa, where the sex showing shorter development time also has a smaller body size than the other sex.

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