Investigation of theAedes(Stegomyia)flavopictusComplex (Diptera: Culicidae) in Japan by Sequence Analysis of the Internal Transcribed Spacers of Ribosomal DNA

Abstract

Aedes (Stegomyia) flavopictus Yamada is widely distributed in Japan and Korea. The species comprises three subspecies based on current morphological taxonomy: Aedes flavopictus in the Palearctic region of Japan, Ae. f downsi Bohart & Ingram from Amami and Okinawa Islands, and Ae. f miyarai Tanaka, Mizusawa & Ingram from Ishigaki and Iriomote Islands of the Ryukyu Archipelago. These subspecies designations are based on observations of a combination of several morphological characters, none of which, by itself is diagnostic for discriminating among the three subspecies. To further study the relationships in this group, we examined the nucleic acid sequence divergence in the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITSI and ITS2) of the ribosomal DNA gene array of Ae. flavopictus individuals collected at five sites from three geographic regions in Japan. Analysis of sequence data by distance and maximum parsimony methods produced phylogenetic trees that showed separation of the specimens into three major clades, corresponding to both subspecies and geographic region. These results were consistent with and support the current classification and geographic distribution of the three subspecies.

DNA barcoding for identification of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

“…al., 1979;Toma and Miyagi, 1986). e current classi cation is also supported by genetic analysis and comparison of ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer regions (Toma et al 2002). In the present study, the mean intraspeci c variations for Ae.…”

Population differentiation andWolbachiaphylogeny in mosquitoes of theAedes scutellarisgroup

“…albopictus (Kjer et al ., 1994; GenBank L22060) and Ae. flavopictus (Yamada) (Toma et al ., 2002; GenBank AF353541) and neighbour‐joining analyses were conducted using mega version 2.1 (Kumar et al ., 2001).…”

Molecular phylogeny of black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) from Thailand, using ITS2 rDNA

“…In contrast, the noncoding regions of ITS1 and ITS2 are highly variable and evolve at a faster rate than do the coding regions (Schlo¨tterer et al, 1994). The ITS2 sequence comparisons are popular for distinguishing closely related species (e.g., Porter & Collins, 1991;Paskewitz, Wesson & Collins, 1993;Cornel, Porter & Collins, 1996;Severini et al, 1996;Walton et al, 1999;Hackett et al, 2000), for differentiation of populations (Fritz et al, 1994;Marrelli et al, 1999), for study of divergence within and between species (Tang et al, 1996;, and for reconstruction of evolutionary relationships ( e.g., Wesson, Porter & Collins, 1992;Schlo¨tterer et al, 1994;Cornel, Porter & Collins, 1996;Miller, Crabtree & Savage, 1996;Xu & Qu, 1997;Depaquit et al, 2000;Weekers, De Jonckheere & Dumont, 2001;Oliverio, Cervelli & Mariottini, 2002;Toma et al, 2002;Young & Coleman, 2004).…”