Population genetics of the malaria vector Anopheles aconitus in China and Southeast Asia

Abstract

Anopheles aconitus is a well-known vector of malaria and is broadly distributed in the Oriental Region, yet there is no information on its population genetic characteristics. In this study, the genetic differentiation among populations was examined using 140 mtDNA COII sequences from 21 sites throughout southern China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka. The population in Sri Lanka has characteristic rDNA D3 and ITS2, mtDNA COII and ND5 haplotypes, and may be considered a distinct subspecies. Clear genetic structure was observed with highly significant genetic variation present among population groups in Southeast Asia. The greatest genetic diversity exists in Yunnan and Myanmar population groups. All population groups are significantly different from one another in pairwise Fst values, except northern Thailand with central Thailand. Mismatch distributions and extremely significant Fs values suggest that the populations passed through a recent demographic expansion. These patterns are discussed in relation to the likely biogeographic history of the region and compared to other Anopheles species.

Lack of population genetic structure and host specificity in the bat fly, Cyclopodia horsfieldi, across species of Pteropus bats in Southeast Asia

“…Average nucleotide diversity for the combined C. horsfieldi mtDNA dataset (3 gene fragments, 1744 bp) was 0.002 ± .0004 (Table 2); comparable to values found in other Dipteran species [64-66]. The gene fragment length (base pairs, bp) and variable/parsimony informative sites for each gene segment were as follows: CoI (702bp, 11/5), CoII (678bp, 11/2), and cytB (364bp, 8/1).…”

Checklist of the mosquito fauna (Diptera, Culicidae) of Cambodia

“…Member of the Funestus Group [ 11 , 88 ]. Distribution: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Macau, Myanmar, Nepal, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam [ 68 ].…”

“…Member of the Minimus Complex [ 11 , 22 , 88 ]. Distribution: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam [ 1 , 68 ].…”

Complete mitochondrial genomes of Anopheles aconitus and Anopheles splendidus and phylogenetics analysis of known mtgenomes in the subgenus Cellia (Diptera: Culicidae: Anophelinae)

“…Anopheles aconitus D€ onitz (D€ onitz 1902) belongs to the minimus subgroup of the Funestus Group, the Myzomyia series in the subgenus Cellia. It is broadly distributed from Sri Lanka, southern and eastern India and southern Nepal, eastward to southern China (Hainan and Yunnan Province), south into Indonesia as far east as Babar Island in the southern Maluku archipelago (Harrison 1980;Sinka et al 2011;Chen et al 2012). It has been affirmed as a vector of malaria parasites in Thailand and is considered to be the primary malaria vector in Malaysia and Indonesia (Gould et al 1965;Damar et al 1981;Rahman et al 1993;Barcus et al 2002).…”

“…aconitus and An. splendidus, such as the cytochrome-oxidase subunit 1 (COI), and the cytochrome-oxidase subunit 2 (COII) have been applied to the studies of molecular identification, phylogenetic and population genetics of these two species (Chen et al 2012). However, the complete mtgenome sequences of the two species have not been reported.…”