The Game-Changing Technique That Cracked the Zika-Mosquito Genome

Ten years ago, a team of scientists published the first genome of Aedes aegypti­—the infamous mosquito that spreads Zika, dengue fever, and yellow fever. It was a valiant effort, but also a. Rather than tidily bundled in the insect’s three pairs of chromosomes, its DNA was scattered among 36,000 small fragments, many of which were riddled with gaps and errors. But last week, a team of scientists led by at the Baylor College of Medicine announced that they had finally —a victory that will undoubtedly be helpful to scientists who study and the diseases it carries.