Demographic history and population structure of Anopheles pseudopunctipennis in Argentina based on the mitochondrial COI gene

Abstract

BackgroundAnopheles pseudopunctipennis is an important malaria vector in the Neotropical region and the only species involved in Plasmodium transmission in the Andean foothills. Its wide geographical distribution in America, high preference for biting humans and capacity to rest inside dwellings after feeding, are attributes contributing to its vector status. Previous reports have tried to elucidate its taxonomic status, distinguishing populations from North, Central and South America. In the present study we used a mitochondrial marker to examine the demographic history of An. pseudopunctipennis in northwestern Argentina.MethodsTwelve localities were selected across 550 km of the distribution of this species in Argentina, including two near the Bolivian border and several in South Tucumán, for sampling. A fragment of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene was sequenced and haplotype relationships were analyzed by a statistical parsimony network and a Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree. Genetic differentiation was estimated with FST. Historical demographic processes were evaluated using diversity measures, neutrality tests and mismatch distribution.ResultsForty-one haplotypes were identified, of which haplotype A was the most common and widely distributed. Neither the network nor the NJ tree showed any geographic differentiation between northern and southern populations. Haplotype diversities, Tajima’s DT and Fu & Li’s F and D neutrality tests and mismatch distribution supported a scenario of Holocene demographic expansion.ConclusionThe demographic pattern suggests that An. pseudopunctipennis has undergone a single colonization process, and the ancestral haplotype is shared by specimens from all localities, indicating mitochondrial gene flow. Genetic differentiation was minimal, observed only between one northern and one southern locality. The estimated time of the population expansion of this species was during the Holocene. These data suggest that regional vector control measures would be equally effective in both northern and southern localities sampled, but also that insecticide resistant genes may spread rapidly within this region.

Use of DNA barcoding to distinguish the malaria vector Anopheles neivai in Colombia

“…2) suggests they may represent hypothetical ancestors from which many of the other haplotypes were derived as was suggested for An. pseudopunctipennis Theobald, 1901 (Dantur Juri et al 2014). Both of these haplotypes were most abundant at the southernmost Colombian municipality sampled, and while also present near the Panamanian border, they were not encountered at the type locality in Panamá.…”

The insupportable validity of mosquito subspecies (Diptera: Culicidae) and their exclusion from culicid classification

“…Dantur Juri et al (2014), in a population genetics study using the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene, sampled 12 localities, that included the above type localities, in the Yungas ecological region in northwestern Argentina. The Yungas is a highland zone on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains, which has a rainy, humid and warm climate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas, accessed 4 June 2021).…”