Abstract
Identifying the species of the subfamily Anophelinae that are Plasmodium vectors is important to vector and malaria control. Despite the increase in cases, vector mosquitoes remain poorly known in Brazilian indigenous communities. This study explores Anophelinae mosquito diversity in the following areas: (1) a Yanomami reserve in the northwestern Amazon Brazil biome and (2) the Pantanal biome in southwestern Brazil. This is carried out by analyzing cytochrome c oxidase (COI) gene data using Refined Single Linkage (RESL), Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP), and tree-based multi-rate Poisson tree processes (mPTP) as species delimitation approaches. A total of 216 specimens collected from the Yanomami and Pantanal regions were sequenced and combined with 547 reference sequences for species delimitation analyses. The mPTP analysis for all sequences resulted in the delimitation of 45 species groups, while the ASAP analysis provided the partition of 48 groups. RESL analysis resulted in 63 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). This study expands our scant knowledge of anopheline species in the Yanomami and Pantanal regions. At least 18 species of Anophelinae mosquitoes were found in these study areas. Additional studies are now required to determine the species that transmit Plasmodium spp. in these regions.
Highlights
Despite many control and elimination efforts, malaria remains one of the most important public health problems globally and affects mainly developing countries [1]
Three methods were employed for species delimitation analysis: Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning—ASAP [40]; multi-rate Poisson tree processes—mPTP [54]; Refined Single Linkage—RESL [38]
A total of 763 sequences (216 new sequences—199 from Yanomami and 17 from Pantanal collections, and 547 reference sequences) from Anopheles, Kerteszia, and Nyssorhynchus and Chagasia genera were used in mPTP, ASAP, and RESL analyses (Supplementary Tables S2 and S3)
Summary
Despite many control and elimination efforts, malaria remains one of the most important public health problems globally and affects mainly developing countries [1]. The Pantanal Brazilian Central Wetlands is one of the main extra-Amazon malariaprone biomes in Brazil [19] It is the smallest Brazilian biome but occupies almost 140,000 km of a seasonally flooded area in the Paraguay river basin, mostly in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul [20]. In Marari, malaria transmission is perennial and periodically intense, and the community is characterized by villages with high population density and high risk of year-round immigration of Plasmodium-carriers from highly endemic areas outside the Yanomami territories (Supplementary Table S1). The Pantanal is one of the largest wetlands in the world [47,48] extending over 147,574 km in Brazil It is located south of the Brazilian Amazon, with seasonal flooding and dry regimes [47] and low-height shrubs characteristic of savannahlike vegetation (Cerrado vegetation). The Pantanal Region extends into areas of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states, as well as parts of Bolivia to the north and Paraguay to the south [47]
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