RNA editing: an overlooked source of fine-scale adaptation in insect vectors?

RNA editing is a source of molecular diversity that regulates the functional repertoire of animal transcriptomes. Multiple studies in Drosophila have revealed that conserved editing events can be a 10 source of evolutionary ad aptations, and there is a solid body of evidence linking editing and the fine tuning of neural genes, which are often targeted by insecticides used in vector control. Yet, 12 despite these suggestive connections, genome wide analyses of editing in insect vect ors are conspicuously lacking. Future advances will require complementing the growing wealth of vector 14 genomes with targeted transcriptome analyses. Here, we review recent investigations of the genetic

footprints of adaptive RNA editing in insects and prov ide an overview of new methodologies 16 applicable to studies of RNA editing in insect vectors.