Background:The subfamily Triatominae, which comprises 157 species, carries the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. This short communication reports for the first time the occurrence of Rhodnius montenegrensis in Bolivia.
Methods:Active searches were carried out on palm trees of the genus Oenocarpus in Beni district, Bolivia.Results: Fifteen R. montenegrensis specimens were collected from a rural area of the Beni district, Bolivia, and tested positive for T. cruzi.
Conclusions:This new report expands the geographic distribution of the species in Latin America. Due to their ability to transmit trypanosomatids, the species deserves the attention of vector control programs.
Culex spp. mosquitoes have idiosyncratic characteristics and its low variability makes difficult their identification. The aim of our study was to analyze the 5' region of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene (coI) for the taxonomic identification of Culex species which were previously morphotyped and diagnosed in Culex and Melanoconion subgenera at the field conditions. Ten specimen sequences were analyzed by the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD). All sequences showed 94-99% identity when compared to other Culex species sequences available from GenBank. Five initial partitions supported 80-88 species groups. Among them, eight sets contained the specimens of the present study. Of the 10 mosquito sequences, five did not form any consistent cluster, and the remaining showed some consistency in the taxonomic diagnosis at the field conditions. Our results suggest that some coI gene sequences of specimens may belong to species of the subgenus Melanoconion, whose 5' coI sequence is unknown or unpublished in GenBank. Palavras-chave: ABGD, coI gene, HP trap, Neighbor-Joining method, Taxonomic Diagnosis.
ResumoOs mosquitos Culex spp. apresentam características idiossincráticas e sua baixa variabilidade dificulta sua identificação. O objetivo do nosso estudo foi analisar a região 5 'do gene da subunidade I do citocromo oxidase (coI) para a identificação taxonômica de espécies de Culex que foram previamente diagnosticadas em subgêneros Culex e Melanoconion em condições de campo. Dez sequências de espécimes foram analisadas pelo Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD). Todas as sequências apresentaram 94-99% de identidade quando comparadas com outras sequências de espécies de Culex disponíveis no GenBank. Cinco partições iniciais suportaram 80-88 grupos de espécies. Entre eles, oito conjuntos continham os espécimes do presente estudo. Das 10 sequências de mosquitos, cinco não formaram nenhum cluster consistente, e as demais apresentaram alguma consistência no diagnóstico taxonômico nas condições de campo. Nossos resultados sugerem que algumas sequências do gene coI de espécimes podem pertencer a espécies do subgênero Melanoconion, cuja sequência 5' coI é desconhecida ou inédita no GenBank.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.