Abstract
Mosquitoes of the Anopheles gambiae complex, namely Anopheles arabiensis (Patton, 1905) and Anopheles gambiae (Giles, 1902) are the major vectors of human malaria in the African continent. This study was conducted mainly to investigate the molecular biologyof members of the An. gambiae complex in Sudan and Republic of Southern Sudan. The molecular investigation involved identification of members of the An. gambiae complex using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques based on DNA specific nucleotide differences in the intergenic spacer region (IGS) of the ribosomal RNA gene claster (rRNA) and partial sequencing and analysis of IGS regions. Adult Anopheles mosquitoes were collected from four sites in Kassala State, Sudan and from one site in Western Bahr El Ghazal State, Republic of Southern Sudan. In addition, An. arabiensis specimens, obtained from Sennar town laboratory colony (Sudan) was used in the study. Collection of Anopheles mosquitoes was done by hand capture using sucking tube (aspirator) during the rainy seasons of 2008, 2009 and 2010. The molecular investigation predicts the existence of two species within the An. gambiae complex, namely An. arabiensis and An. gambiae . An. arabiensis was found as the predominant Anopheles mosquitoes in all the collection sites while An. gambiae was found sympatrically with An. arabiensis in Republic of Southern Sudan. The analysis of the IGS fragments revealed moderate level of genetic variations within and between the An. arabiensis populations. An. gambiae individuals showed high genetic similarity. The genetic analysis revealed little population differentiation ( F st=0.067) and high migration rate (Nm=3.51) which indicated high gene flow between An. arabiensis populations collected from Kassala State localities. The phylogenetic relationships between the different populations of An. arabiensis and An. gambiae were investigated. The IGS regions of rRNA gene have been shown to be powerful markers for species identification and studying the genetic structure of members of An. gambiae complex.
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