Abstract
BackgroundAnopheles cruzii (Diptera: Culicidae) has long been known as a vector of human and simian malaria parasites in southern and south-eastern Brazil. Previous studies have provided evidence that An. cruzii is a species complex, but the status of the different populations and the number of sibling species remains unclear. A recent analysis of the genetic differentiation of the timeless gene among An. cruzii populations from south and south-east Brazil has suggested that the population from Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro State (south-east Brazil), is in a process of incipient speciation.MethodsA ~180 bp fragment of cpr, a gene encoding the NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase, an enzyme involved in metabolic insecticide resistance and odorant clearance in insects, was used in this study as a molecular marker to analyse the divergence between five An. cruzii populations from south and south-east Brazil.ResultsAnalysis of the genetic differentiation in the cpr gene revealed very high FST values and fixed differences between Itatiaia and the other four populations studied (Florianópolis, Cananéia, Juquitiba and Santa Teresa). In addition, the data also provided preliminary evidence that seems to indicate the occurrence of two sympatric sibling species in Itatiaia.ConclusionsPopulation genetics analysis of An. cruzii samples from different localities using a fragment of the cpr gene suggests that the Itatiaia sample represents at least one new sibling species in this complex.
Highlights
Anopheles cruzii (Diptera: Culicidae) has long been known as a vector of human and simian malaria parasites in southern and south-eastern Brazil
Polymorphism and divergence among An. cruzii populations A total of 112 sequences were obtained (28 from Florianópolis, 24 from Cananéia, 24 from Juquitiba, 22 from Itatiaia and 14 from Santa Teresa)
All base substitutions occurred in the intron which shows a number of indels, including three polymorphic dinucleotide repetitions (Figure 2 and Additional file 2)
Summary
Anopheles cruzii (Diptera: Culicidae) has long been known as a vector of human and simian malaria parasites in southern and south-eastern Brazil. Anopheles cruzii has long been known as a vector of human and simian malaria parasites in southern and south-eastern Brazil [1,2] This species, which belongs to the subgenus Kerteszia, is found from the coast of Rio Grande do Sul State in southern Brazil to Sergipe State in north-eastern Brazil [3,4], all along the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Supporting the isoenzyme results, analysis of the molecular polymorphism and genetic differentiation of the timeless gene among Brazilian populations of An. cruzii indicated two cryptic species, one occurring in the north-east (Bahia State) and another in south and south-east Brazil (Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Santa Catarina States). Since previous X chromosome analyses suggested the existence of sibling species in these Brazilian regions [9,10], it would be interesting to analyse the same populations with an X-linked molecular marker to see whether a higher level of differentiation is found
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