Abstract
Panstrongylus geniculatus (Latreille, 1811) is the triatomine with the largest geographic distribution in Latin America. It has been reported in 18 countries from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, including the Caribbean islands. Although most reports indicate that P. geniculatus has wild habitats, this species has intrusive habits regarding human dwellings mainly located in intermediate deforested areas. It is attracted by artificial light from urban and rural buildings, raising the risk of transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi. Despite the wide body of published information on P. geniculatus, many knowledge gaps exist about its biology and epidemiological potential. For this reason, we analysed the literature for P. geniculatus in Scopus, PubMed, Scielo, Google Scholar and the BibTriv3.0 databases to update existing knowledge and provide better information on its geographic distribution, life cycle, genetic diversity, evidence of intrusion and domiciliation, vector-related circulating discrete taxonomic units, possible role in oral T. cruzi transmission, and the effect of climate change on its biology and epidemiology.
Highlights
Chagas disease affects around 7 million people in Latin America and is considered one of the 10 most important neglected diseases in the region.[1,2] Currently, 154 species within the Triatominae subfamily have been described and are able to transmit Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease under natural and experimental conditions.[2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Panstrongylus geniculatus (Latreille, 1811) is the triatomine with the greatest geographic distribution in the Americas, ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina and including the Caribbean islands.[9,10] This vector occupies extremely variable areas across the wild landscape, being found in different ecosystems within the same country.[11]. Most records deal with the species occupying altitudes ranging from sea level to around 2,000 metres above sea level; the species has been found at altitudes from 2,000 to 4,000 masl in some Andean countries (i.e., Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), thereby indicating the species’ great adaptive capability, probably enabling its shift in altitude as a consequence of lowland warming, regarding today’s climate changes.[12,13,14,15,16]
2|18 Ricardo José Vivas et al Studies on the taxonomy of this genus and the identification of P. geniculatus have been problematic because most are based on morphometry and karyotyping, but few have employed molecular markers.[17,18,19,20] The phylogenies based on morphological traits presents the Panstrongylus genus as a monophyletic group, whereas the ITS-2 phylogenetic trees suggest that it is polyphyletic group of Triatoma species from South, Central and North America.[9,21] In another study, using four mitochondrial markers (16S, COI, COII, Cytb) and two nuclear (18S and 28S) ones, Panstrongylus fell into two groups
Summary
Systematic review on the biology, ecology, genetic diversity and parasite transmission potential of Panstrongylus geniculatus (Latreille 1811) in Latin America. Despite the wide body of published information on P. geniculatus, many knowledge gaps exist about its biology and epidemiological potential For this reason, we analysed the literature for P. geniculatus in Scopus, PubMed, Scielo, Google Scholar and the BibTriv3.0 databases to update existing knowledge and provide better information on its geographic distribution, life cycle, genetic diversity, evidence of intrusion and domiciliation, vector-related circulating discrete taxonomic units, possible role in oral T. cruzi transmission, and the effect of climate change on its biology and epidemiology. All relevant studies on taxonomy, morphological variability, life cycle, geographical distribution, genetic diversity, intrusion and colonisation of human dwellings, oral transmission and discrete taxonomic units of T. cruzi and possible effects of climate change on P. geniculatus were chosen. In a life-cycle study using uncontrolled conditions, the insects were subjected to temperatures of 21-25oC, relative
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