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The New Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 Diagnostic Tool Clarifies the Taxonomic Position and Geographic Distribution of the North American Malaria Vector Anopheles Punctipennis
- Source :
- Malaria Journal, Malaria Journal, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Research Square Platform LLC, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Background The malaria mosquito Anopheles punctipennis, a widely distributed species in North America, is capable of transmitting human malaria and is actively involved in the transmission of the ungulate malaria parasite Plasmodium odocoilei. However, molecular diagnostic tools based on Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA are lacking for this species. Anopheles punctipennis is a former member of the Anopheles maculipennis complex but its systematic position remains unclear. Methods In this study, ITS2 sequences were obtained from 276 An. punctipennis specimens collected in the eastern and midwestern United States and a simple and robust Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism approach for species identification was developed. The maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree was constructed based on ITS2 sequences available through this study and from GenBank for 20 species of Anopheles. Results The analysis demonstrated a consistent ITS2 sequence length and showed no indications of intragenomic variation among the samples based on ITS2, suggesting that An. punctipennis represents a single species in the studied geographic locations. In this study, An. punctipennis was found in urban, rural, and forest settings, suggesting its potential broad role in pathogen transmission. Phylogeny based on ITS2 sequence comparison demonstrated the close relationship of this species with other members of the Maculipennis group. Conclusions This study developed molecular tools based on ITS2 sequences for the malaria vector An. punctipennis and clarified the phylogenetic position of the species within the Maculipennis group.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Entomology
lcsh:Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
lcsh:RC955-962
Minnesota
030231 tropical medicine
Mosquito Vectors
Biology
lcsh:Infectious and parasitic diseases
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Mosquito
Phylogenetics
parasitic diseases
Anopheles
DNA, Ribosomal Spacer
Molecular diagnostics
Animals
lcsh:RC109-216
Internal transcribed spacer
Ribosomal DNA
Anopheles punctipennis
Phylogenetic tree
Research
Virginia
Plasmodium odocoilei
biology.organism_classification
Iowa
Malaria
030104 developmental biology
Infectious Diseases
Evolutionary biology
Florida
Parasitology
Restriction fragment length polymorphism
Animal Distribution
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Malaria Journal, Malaria Journal, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....27573413473860ce68f8a9c02b294988