Using codon usage bias to investigate the role of alternative vectors in the spread of Zika alternative

In the last years, outbreaks of Zika virus (ZIKV) and Dengue have been reported from both endemic and newly invaded areas areas of the world. ZIKV is in general associated with, and is well adapted to, primates and mosquitoes vectors, on which it can complete its cycle. Unfortunately, there is insufficient information regarding other animal reservoirs and amplification hosts, but there's a concrete possibility that ZIKV can infect other species, including domestic animals both from endemic and newly invaded temperate areas; such knowledge is fundamental to properly describe the epidemiology of ZIKV and plan its management. Unfortunately, large scalescreenings of putative alternative vectors, is extremely time and cost consuming. We suggest to employ Codon Usage Bias (CUB, (the adaptive similarity of codon usage ofvirus to that of its hosts), to predict if alternative hosts, in particular those associated with humans, can vehicle ZIKV. This will be performed by contrasting codon usage of ZIKVof hosts deduced from trascriptomes/proteomes, calculating parameters like RSCU (relative synonymous codon usage), CAI (codon adaptation index) and ENC (effective number of codons). Our first results indicate that Zika has putatively poor replication efficiency in Culex Pipiens. Ultimately, we advocate the analyses of CUB to understand evolutionary dynamics of ZIKV and other flaviviruses and better forecast their future outbreaks.