Parasitology Research (2016) 115, 1149-1160

Chithravel Vadivalagan, Pushparaj Karthika, Kadarkarai Murugan, Chellasamy Panneerselvam, Manickam Paulpandi, Pari Madhiyazhagan, Hui Wei, Al Thabiani Aziz, Mohamad Saleh Alsalhi, Sandhanasamy Devanesan, Marcello Nicoletti, Rajaiah Paramasivan, Devakumar Dinesh and Giovanni Benelli (2016)
Genetic deviation in geographically close populations of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae): influence of environmental barriers in South India
Parasitology Research 115 (3), 1149-1160
Abstract: Mosquitoes are vectors of devastating pathogens and parasites, causing millions of deaths every year. Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection found in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Recently, dengue transmission has strongly increased in urban and semiurban areas, becoming a major international public health concern. Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) is a primary vector of dengue. Shedding light on genetic deviation in A. aegypti populations is of crucial importance to fully understand their molecular ecology and evolution. In this research, haplotype and genetic analyses were conducted using individuals of A. aegypti from 31 localities in the north, southeast, northeast and central regions of Tamil Nadu (South India). The mitochondrial DNA region of cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1) gene was used as marker for the analyses. Thirty-one haplotypes sequences were submitted to GenBank and authenticated. The complete haplotype set included 64 haplotypes from various geographical regions clustered into three groups (lineages) separated by three fixed mutational steps, suggesting that the South Indian Ae. aegypti populations were pooled and are linked with West Africa, Columbian and Southeast Asian lineages. The genetic and haplotype diversity was low, indicating reduced gene flow among close populations of the vector, due to geographical barriers such as water bodies. Lastly, the negative values for neutrality tests indicated a bottle-neck effect and supported for low frequency of polymorphism among the haplotypes. Overall, our results add basic knowledge to molecular ecology of the dengue vector A. aegypti, providing the first evidence for multiple introductions of Ae. aegypti populations from Columbia and West Africa in South India.
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Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Giovanni Benelli, Kadarkarai Murugan, Marcello Nicoletti

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Aedes aegypti		India