{"doi":"10.1128/mbio.01765-20","title":"Detailed Analyses of Zika Virus Tropism in Culex quinquefasciatus Reveal Systemic Refractoriness","abstract":"Understanding which mosquito species transmit an emerging arbovirus is critical to effective vector control. During the Zika virus epidemic in 2015 to 2016, Aedes mosquitoes were confirmed as vectors. However, studies addressing the vector status of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes presented conflicting evidence and remain an outstanding source of confusion in the field. Here, we established a robust cell-based assay to identify infectious titers of Zika virus and assessed the virus titers in C. quinquefasciatus by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). We found that while low levels of virus were detected in C. quinquefasciatus , these titers did not correspond to infectious virus, and these mosquitoes did not transmit virus in the saliva. We also present evidence that the virus may enter Culex cells before infection is disrupted. Our findings are important for future studies incriminating vector species using qRT-PCR for virus detection and offer new information on how virus transmission is blocked by mosquitoes.","journal":"mBio","year":2020,"id":83599,"datarank":0.37273599746820013,"base_score":2.4849066497880004,"endowment":2.4849066497880004,"self_citation_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9571,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":111423,"name":"George Dimopoulos","orcid":"0000-0001-6755-8111","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":430103,"name":"Hannah J. MacLeod","orcid":"0000-0002-6478-7581","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":94,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:54:32.422022Z","pmid":"32817107","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}