Polymorphism of mitochondrial COI and nuclear ribosomal ITS2 in the Culex pipiens complex and in Culex torrentium (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

Abstract. Polymorphism of the mtDNA gene COI encoding cytochrome C oxidase subunit I was studied in the mosquitoes Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758 and C. torrentium Martini, 1925 from sixteen locations in Russia and in three laboratory strains of subtropical subspecies of the C. pipiens complex. Representatives of this complex are characterized by a high ecological plasticity and there are signifi cant ecophysiological differences between its morphologically similar members. The full-size DNA sequence of the gene COI spans 1548 bp and has a total A+T content of 70.2 %. The TAA is a terminating codon in all studied representatives of the C. pipiens complex and C. torrentium. 64 variable nucleotide sites (4 %) were found, fi fteen haplotypes were detected, and two heteroplasmic specimens of C. torrentium were recorded. COI haplotype diversity was low in Wolbachia-infected populations of the C. pipiens complex. Monomorphic haplotypes were found in C. p. quinquefasciatus and C. p. pipiens f. molestus. Three haplotypes were detected for the C. p. pipiens, but these haplotypes were not population-specifi c. On the other hand, each of the ten studied Wolbachia-uninfected C. torrentium individuals from three different populations had unique mitochondrial haplotypes. Polymorphism of the 478-bp ITS2 nucleotide sequences was similar in infected C. p. pipiens and C. p. pipiens f. molestus and uninfected C. torrentium specimens. The ITS2 genetic distance between C. p. pipiens and C. torrentium reached 12.5 %. Possible effects of Wolbachia invasion on C. pipiens populations are discussed.

Comparative analysis of the circadian rhythm genes period and timeless in Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758 (Diptera, Culicidae)

“…Extended study of exon 1 of the gene tim revealed 4 DNA haplotypes in Culex pipiens f. “molestus” and 19 haplotypes in Culex pipiens f. “pipiens”. Decrease in DNA variability for the underground mosquitoes of Culex pipiens f. “molestus” was also reported earlier in our study of mitochondrial DNA (Shaikevich and Zakharov 2010). …”

Molecular Characterization of the Asian Tiger Mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) in Northern Italy

“…The ITS2 region was amplified using primers complementary to the 5,8S and 28S rRNA [20]. The DNA extraction and PCR were performed according to previously described methods [18].…”

“…PCR amplification of the COI gene was performed using the primers TY-J-1460 [17] and COIR2 [18]. The mosquitoes were tested for Wolbachia infection using PCR with primers wsp81F and wsp691R complementary to the gene wsp [19].…”

The diagnostic utility of sequence-based assays for the molecular delimitation of the epidemiologically relevantCulex pipiens pipienstaxa (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…The diagnostic utility of 5′ COI mtDNA and ITS2 rDNA assays in molestus/pipiens delimitation Sequence-based molecular approaches to Cx. p. pipiens ecotype designation predominantly used 5′ end of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I mtDNA (5′ COI mtDNA) as a DNA barcode marker (Shaikevich, 2007(Shaikevich, , 2017Shaikevich & Zakharov, 2010;Danabalan et al, 2012;Gunay et al, 2015). This locus was firstly proposed by Shaikevich (2007) as diagnostic for molestus/pipiens delimitation when underground, autogenous populations in a European part of Russia were found to differ in one fixed substitution from aboveground, anautogenous populations (HII vs. HI labeled herein, respectively).…”