Temperature alters Culex tarsalis West Nile virus vector competence, tissue bottlenecks, and transcriptional responses

Elevated temperature increases Culex tarsalis West Nile virus transmission of rare virus variants by raising vector competence and relaxing tissue barriers.

• Why it matters: Temperature is a major abiotic driver of arbovirus transmission, yet its effects on WNV population bottlenecks and infection-linked transcription in Culex are unclear.
• What they did: The study tested how temperature changes vector competence and tissue barrier stringency, then profiled Cx. tarsalis transcriptional responses during WNV infection.
• The result: WNV infection caused minimal transcriptional changes, while temperature strongly altered mosquito gene expression, implying bottleneck shifts occur largely independent of canonical antiviral pathways.

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