Abstract
BackgroundWater quality and anopheline habitat have received increasing attention due to the possibility that challenges during larval life may translate into adult susceptibility to malaria parasite infection and/or insecticide resistance.MethodsA preliminary study of Anopheles gambiae s.s. larval habitats in the north-west and south-west regions of Cameroon was conducted in order to detect associations between An. gambiae s.s. molecular form and 2La inversion distributions with basic water quality parameters. Water quality was measured by temperature, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS) at seven sites in Cameroon and one site in Selinkenyi, Mali.ResultsPrincipal components and correlation analyses indicated a complex relationship between 2La polymorphism, temperature, conductivity and TDS. Cooler water sites at more inland locations yielded more S form larvae with higher 2La inversion polymorphism while warmer water sites yielded more M form larvae with rare observations of the 2La inversion.DiscussionMore detailed studies that take into account the population genetics but also multiple life stages, environmental data relative to these life stages and interactions with both humans and the malaria parasite may help us to understand more about how and why this successful mosquito is able to adapt and diverge, and how it can be successfully managed.
Highlights
Water quality and anopheline habitat have received increasing attention due to the possibility that challenges during larval life may translate into adult susceptibility to malaria parasite infection and/or insecticide resistance
Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). In this small study of larval An. gambiae habitats in north-western Cameroon, several water quality parameters were found to be significantly correlated with molecular forms
The S molecular form was collected in cooler water with higher conductivity and total dissolved solids (TDS) and was characterized by variation in the 2La inversion
Summary
Water quality and anopheline habitat have received increasing attention due to the possibility that challenges during larval life may translate into adult susceptibility to malaria parasite infection and/or insecticide resistance. In the molecular forms, considerable evidence supports the importance of a number of premating factors including mating swarm segregation [23], cuticular hydrocarbon differentiation [24], wing beat frequency harmonization [25,26] and larval habitat segregation [27,28,29]. Until recently, these have been largely assumed to be universal throughout the large distribution of the species [30]. In Burkina Faso, M forms are more often encountered in rice fields whereas S forms are more often found in naturally occurring puddles [29,35]
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