VectorBase (http://www.vectorbase.org) is an NIAID-funded Bioinformatic Resource Center focused on invertebrate vectors of human pathogens. VectorBase annotates and curates vector genomes providing a web accessible integrated resource for the research community. Currently, VectorBase contains genome information for three mosquito species: Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae and Culex quinquefasciatus, a body louse Pediculus humanus and a tick species Ixodes scapularis. Since our last report VectorBase has initiated a community annotation system, a microarray and gene expression repository and controlled vocabularies for anatomy and insecticide resistance. We have continued to develop both the software infrastructure and tools for interrogating the stored data.

Genome biology of mosquitoes holds potential in developing knowledge-based control strategies against vectorborne diseases such as malaria, dengue, West Nile, and others. Although the genomes of three major vector mosquitoes have been sequenced, attempts to elucidate the relationship between intron and codon usage bias across species in phylogenetic contexts are limited. In this study, we investigated the relationship between intron content and codon bias of orthologous genes among three vector mosquito species. We found an antagonistic relationship between codon usage bias and the intron number of genes in each mosquito species. The pattern is further evident among the intronless and the intron-containing orthologous genes associated with either low or high codon bias among the three species. Furthermore, the covariance between codon bias and intron number has a directional component associated with the species phylogeny when compared with other nonmosquito insects. By applying a maximum likelihood-based continuous regression method, we show that codon bias and intron content of genes vary among the insects in a phylogeny-dependent manner, but with no evidence of adaptive radiation or species-specific adaptation. We discuss the functional and evolutionary significance of antagonistic relationships between intron content and codon bias.

Although gene overlapping is a common feature of prokaryote and mitochondria genomes, such genes have also been identified in many eukaryotes. The overlapping genes in eukaryotes are extensively rearranged even between closely related species. In this study, we investigated retention and rearrangement of positionally overlapping genes between the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti (dengue virus vector) and Anopheles gambiae (malaria vector). The overlapping gene pairs of A. aegypti were further compared with orthologs of other selected insects to conduct several hypothesis driven investigations relating to the evolution and rearrangement of overlapping genes.