{
  "abstract": "Hybridization between ecologically distinct lineages can fuel rapid adaptation when introgressed alleles are locally favored. The North American Culex pipiens assemblage, a principal West Nile virus vector east of the Mississippi, comprises three lineages---temperate Cx. pipiens f. pipiens, urban-specialist Cx. pipiens f. molestus, and subtropical Cx. quinquefasciatus---that meet in a mid-Atlantic hybrid zone where temperature and urbanization gradients intersect. Using whole-genome Pool-seq of 24 field populations and three lineage-reference pools across the Baltimore--Washington corridor, we find a weakly differentiated, Cx. pipiens f. pipiens-like background, richer in molestus- and quinquefasciatus-like ancestry toward the warmer end of the corridor. Urbanization impacts allele frequencies across the genome: molestus-like ancestry rises with impervious surface, independently of temperature and position, while Cx. quinquefasciatus-like ancestry does not. An 11.6 Mb chromosome 3 inversion is molestus-like in every population, most of all in urban ones, and tracks genome-wide molestus-like ancestry. Temperature acts locus by locus. On chromosome 1, a cluster of six CYP6 paralogs, a family implicated in insecticide resistance and thermal-stress response, shows rising Cx. quinquefasciatus-like ancestry and read depth with temperature. A chromosome 2 interval centered on a Yan ortholog, a repressor of cell differentiation, shows non-quinquefasciatus ancestry increasing with temperature, consistent with selection against Cx. quinquefasciatus-like introgression. Urban populations therefore carry more ancestry from the human-commensal lineage, while temperature moves ancestry both ways at individual loci. Both molestus and Cx. quinquefasciatus donors carry human-contact traits, so these patterns bear on how warming and urbanization will reshape arboviral risk.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Maryland College Park"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "B. P. Gregory"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Arsenault-Benoit"
    },
    {
      "name": "K. L. Bell"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "M. L. Fritz"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1xy6ddy49qr56.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.30.763117",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.763117v1.full",
  "id": "1xy6ddy49qr56",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.763117v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "genomics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.763117v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-30",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1xy6ddy49qr56.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T00:21:40Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.30.763117",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.763117v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:genomics",
      "subfield": "genetics-genomics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Urban enrichment of molestus ancestry and opposing temperature clines in a metropolitan Culex pipiens hybrid zone",
  "title_text": "Urban enrichment of molestus ancestry and opposing temperature clines in a metropolitan Culex pipiens hybrid zone",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-05T00:21:09Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1xy6ddy49qr56",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}