Draft Genomes of Anopheles cracens and Anopheles maculatus: Comparison of Simian Malaria and Human Malaria Vectors in Peninsular Malaysia.

Yee-Ling Lau,Junhui Chen,Mun-Yik Fong,Jia-Siang Sum,Wenn-Chyau Lee,Zhen Zhong,Jianbo Jian,Fei-Wen Cheong,Amirah Amir,Georges Snounou

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157893

Abstract

Anopheles cracens has been incriminated as the vector of human knowlesi malaria in peninsular Malaysia. Besides, it is a good laboratory vector of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. The distribution of An. cracens overlaps with that of An. maculatus, the human malaria vector in peninsular Malaysia that seems to be refractory to P. knowlesi infection in natural settings. Whole genome sequencing was performed on An. cracens and An. maculatus collected here. The draft genome of An. cracens was 395 Mb in size whereas the size of An. maculatus draft genome was 499 Mb. Comparison with the published Malaysian An. maculatus genome suggested the An. maculatus specimen used in this study as a different geographical race. Comparative analyses highlighted the similarities and differences between An. cracens and An. maculatus, providing new insights into their biological behavior and characteristics.

Highlights

Many tropical and subtropical regions of Asia are still endemic to malaria with various species of Anopheles mosquitoes acting as vectors [1,2,3]
The larger genome sizes yielded for An. maculatus and An. cracens could be attributed to the performed sequencing depth
By examining the extent of orthologous group sharing among An. cracens, An. maculatus, An. darlingi, An. gambiae, An. sinensis, Ae. aegypti and Cx. quinquefasciatus, we found that 6,235 gene families were shared across these culicines, and 2,884 gene families were exclusively shared among the Anopheles spp

Summary

Introduction

Many tropical and subtropical regions of Asia are still endemic to malaria with various species of Anopheles mosquitoes acting as vectors [1,2,3]. Some of these malaria vectors are involved in transmission of human and zoonotic filariasis in this region [4, 5]. The involvement of Plasmodium knowlesi in human malaria transmission has further complicated the malaria transmission profile in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia [6]. The vectors responsible for transmission of knowlesi malaria in human population are different from the vectors of other human malaria parasites in some affected areas. Take peninsular Malaysia for example, the vector of P. knowlesi is Anopheles cracens, which can be found at the edge of forests in hilly areas [7]. The vectors of human non-knowlesi malaria parasites in peninsular

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Conclusion