Inheritance of oral susceptibility of Aedes aegypti to Chikungunya virus.

A colony of rosy eye mutants of Aedes aegypti was established. This strain was refractory to Chikungunya virus by oral route of infection when compared with the wild-type parent strain. The refractoriness of this strain seems to be due to a mesentronal barrier, since both the mosquito strains supported the multiplication of virus after intrathoracic inoculation. The rosy eye strain was also found to be refractory to Sagiyama virus (Alphaviridae: Getah virus subtype) when compared with wild-type parent strain, but no such difference in the oral susceptibility was found with dengue-2 (Flaviviridae) virus. The rosy eye mutant appears to be closely linked to the gene(s) for refractoriness to alpha viruses and may be useful in future studies in understanding the genetic basis of vector competence of Ae. aegypti to arboviruses.