scholarly journals DNA Barcoding of Mosquitoes from the Pantanos de Centla Biosphere Reserve, Southeastern Mexico

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-207
Author(s):  
Aldo I. Ortega-Morales ◽  
Luis M. Hernández-Triana ◽  
Rahuel J. Chan-Chable ◽  
Javier A. Garza-Hernández ◽  
Vicente H. González-Álvarez ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Accurate identification of mosquito species is essential to support programs that involve the study of distribution and mosquito control. Numerous mosquito species are difficult to identify based only on morphological characteristics, due to the morphological similarities in different life stages and large numbers of some species that are members of morphologically similar species complexes. In the present study, the mosquitoes collected in the Pantanos de Centla Biosphere Reserve, southeastern Mexico, were evaluated using a combination of morphological and molecular approaches (mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I [COI] DNA barcode). A total of 1,576 specimens of 10 genera and 35 species, mostly adult stages, were collected. A total of 225 COI DNA barcode sequences were analyzed; most species formed well-supported groups in the neighbor joining, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference trees. The intraspecific Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) genetic distance averaged 1.52%. An intraspecific K2P distance of 6.20% was observed in Anopheles crucians s.l., while a deep split was identified in Culex erraticus and Cx. conspirator. This study showed that COI DNA barcodes offer a reliable approach to support mosquito species identification in Mexico.

Botany ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (7) ◽  
pp. 773-789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary W. Saunders

The field of DNA barcoding is working towards generating a genetic system for the quick and accurate identification of eukaryotic species. For the more systematic minded, however, DNA barcoding offers a new approach towards screening and uniting large numbers of biological specimens in genetic groups as a first step towards assigning them to species and genera in an approach best termed “molecular-assisted alpha taxonomy”. This approach is particularly amenable in organisms with simple morphologies, a propensity for convergence, extensive phenotypic plasticity, and life histories with an alternation of heteromorphic generations. It is hard to imagine a group of organisms better defined by all of these traits than the marine macroalgae. In an effort to assess the utility of the DNA barcode (COI-5′) for testing the current concepts of biodiversity of marine macroalgae in Canada, a study to assess species diversity in the red algal family, Dumontiaceae, was initiated. Through this work I confirm the presence in Canadian waters of Dilsea californica (J. Agardh) Kuntze, Dilsea integra (Kjellman) Rosenvinge, and Neodilsea borealis (I.A. Abbott) Lindstrom of the Dilsea–Neodilsea complex, and Weeksia coccinea (Harvey) Lindstrom for the genus Weeksia . However, our work has uncovered two additional species of the former complex, Dilsea lindstromiae Saunders sp. nov. and Dilsea pygmaea (Setchell) Setchell, and an additional species of the latter, Weeksia reticulata Setchell, effectively doubling representation of these foliose dumontiacean genera in Canadian waters.


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4363 (4) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
SHAOKUN GUO ◽  
JIA HE ◽  
ZIHUA ZHAO ◽  
LIJUN LIU ◽  
LIYUAN GAO ◽  
...  

Neoceratitis asiatica (Becker), which especially infests wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.), could cause serious economic losses every year in China, especially to organic wolfberry production. In some important wolfberry plantings, it is difficult and time-consuming to rear the larvae or pupae to adults for morphological identification. Molecular identification based on DNA barcode is a solution to the problem. In this study, 15 samples were collected from Ningxia, China. Among them, five adults were identified according to their morphological characteristics. The utility of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene sequence as DNA barcode in distinguishing N. asiatica was evaluated by analysing Kimura 2-parameter distances and phylogenetic trees. There were significant differences between intra-specific and inter-specific genetic distances according to the barcoding gap analysis. The uncertain larval and pupal samples were within the same cluster as N. asiatica adults and formed sister cluster to N. cyanescens. A combination of morphological and molecular methods enabled accurate identification of N. asiatica. This is the first study using DNA barcode to identify N. asiatica and the obtained DNA sequences will be added to the DNA barcode database. 


Author(s):  
M Laurito ◽  
A M Ayala ◽  
D L Arias-Builes ◽  
W R Almirón

Abstract The family Culicidae is represented by 244 species in Argentina, many of them with epidemiological importance. DNA barcodes are effective tools for identifying mosquito species, for knowing genetic variability, and for establishing phylogenetic relationships. This work aims to explore mosquito diversity employing different species delimitation approaches and to establish formally a DNA barcode library for the Argentinian mosquito fauna. Barcode fragments of 80 specimens of Argentinian mosquitoes of 28 species of the genera Aedeomyia Theobald (Diptera: Culicidae), Anopheles Meigen (Diptera: Culicidae), Coquillettidia Dyar (Diptera: Culicidae), Culex L. (Diptera: Culicidae), Haemagogus Williston (Diptera: Culicidae), Mansonia Blanchard (Diptera: Culicidae), Nyssorhynchus Blanchard (Diptera: Culicidae), Ochlerotatus Lynch-Arribálzaga (Diptera: Culicidae), Psorophora Robinneau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Culicidae) and Uranotaenia Lynch-Arribálzaga (Diptera: Culicidae) were sequenced. Another 82 sequences were obtained from public databases to establish the phylogenetic relationships using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference, and the species boundaries based on three approaches (ABGD, GMYC, and mPTP). Sixteen of the 28 species sequenced were recovered as monophyletic, of which 12 were also recognized as molecular operational taxonomic units according to the three methodologies. The disparity between morphology and barcode-based identifications could be explained by synonymy, species complexes occurrence, hybridization, incomplete lineage sorting, or the effect of the geographical scale of sampling. Twenty of the 28 sequenced species are new barcodes for Argentina and 11 are the first for science. This increases from 31 to 52 (12.7 to 21.31%) and from six to 10 (28.57 to 47.62%) the number of species and genera, respectively, with barcode sequences in Argentina. New species records are provided.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Mundis ◽  
Gabriela Hamerlinck ◽  
Emily K. Stone ◽  
Ari Whiteman ◽  
Eric Delmelle ◽  
...  

AbstractAedes albopictus is a cosmopolitan mosquito species capable of transmitting arboviral diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. To control this and similar species, public and private entities often rely on pyrethroid insecticides. Insecticide resistance status and physiological traits, such as body size, may contribute to local patterns of abundance, which is important for planning vector control. In this study, we genetically screened Ae. albopictus collected from June to August, 2017, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, for mutations conferring pyrethroid resistance, and examined spatiotemporal patterns of specimen size, as measured by wing length. We hypothesized that size variation would be associated with factors found to influence abundance in similar populations of Ae. albopictus, and could therefore serve as a proxy measure. The genetic screening results indicated that known pyrethroid resistance alleles in two kdr regions are not present in this population. We detected no significant associations between wing length and socioeconomic and landscape factors, but mosquitoes collected in June had significantly longer wing length than in July or August. The lack of resistance indicators suggest that this population has not developed insecticide resistance via voltage-gated sodium channel mutations. The greater wing lengths in June are likely driven by meteorological patterns, suggesting that short-term weather cues may modulate morphological characteristics that, in turn, affect local fecundity and virus transmission potential.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis M. Hernández-Triana ◽  
Javier A. Garza-Hernández ◽  
Aldo I. Ortega Morales ◽  
Sean W. J. Prosser ◽  
Paul D. N. Hebert ◽  
...  

There are ~240 species of Culicidae in Mexico, of which some are vectors of arthropod-borne viruses such as Zika virus, dengue virus, chikungunya virus, and West Nile virus. Thus, the identification of mosquito feeding preferences is paramount to understanding of vector–host–pathogen interactions that, in turn, can aid the control of disease outbreaks. Typically, DNA and RNA are extracted separately for animal (insects and blood meal hosts) and viral identification, but this study demonstrates that multiple organisms can be analyzed from a single RNA extract. For the first time, residual DNA present in standard RNA extracts was analyzed by DNA barcoding in concert with Sanger and next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify both the mosquito species and the source of their meals in blood-fed females caught in seven sylvan communities in Chiapas State, Mexico. While mosquito molecular identification involved standard barcoding methods, the sensitivity of blood meal identification was maximized by employing short primers with NGS. In total, we collected 1,634 specimens belonging to 14 genera, 25 subgenera, and 61 morphospecies of mosquitoes. Of these, four species were new records for Mexico (Aedes guatemala, Ae. insolitus, Limatus asulleptus, Trichoprosopon pallidiventer), and nine were new records for Chiapas State. DNA barcode sequences for >300 bp of the COI gene were obtained from 291 specimens, whereas 130 bp sequences were recovered from another 179 specimens. High intraspecific divergence values (>2%) suggesting cryptic species complexes were observed in nine taxa: Anopheles eiseni (5.39%), An. pseudopunctipennis (2.79%), Ae. podographicus (4.05%), Culex eastor (4.88%), Cx. erraticus (2.28%), Toxorhynchites haemorrhoidalis (4.30%), Tr. pallidiventer (4.95%), Wyeomyia adelpha/Wy. guatemala (7.30%), and Wy. pseudopecten (4.04%). The study increased the number of mosquito species known from 128 species to 138 species for Chiapas State, and 239 for Mexico as a whole. Blood meal analysis showed that Aedes angustivittatus fed on ducks and chicken, whereas Psorophora albipes fed on humans. Culex quinquefasciatus fed on diverse hosts including chicken, human, turkey, and Mexican grackle. No arbovirus RNA was detected by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction in the surveyed specimens. This study demonstrated, for the first time, that residual DNA present in RNA blood meal extracts can be used to identify host vectors, highlighting the important role of molecular approaches in both vector identification and revealing host–vector–pathogen interactions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thi Cam Mien Phi ◽  
Hoang Ha Chu ◽  
Ngoc Trieu Le ◽  
Duc Bach Nguyen

AbstractThe genus Paramignya (Rutaceae) comprises about 30 species typically distributing in tropical Asia. Like other genera of the family Rutaceae, the significant variation in the morphology of Paramignya species makes the taxonomic study and accurate identification become difficult. In Vietnam, Paramignya species have been mostly found in Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong provinces and used as traditional medicines. Recently, Paramignya trimera, a species of the genus Paramignya with local name “Xao tam phan” has been drawn attention and intensively exploited to treat liver diseases and cancers. However, the significant variations in the morphology and different local names of P. trimera have caused confusion and difficulty in the accurate identification and application of this plant for medicine. In this study, the combination of both morphological and DNA sequence data has effectively supported the taxonomic identification of P. trimera and some relatives collected in Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong provinces. The comparison of the morphology and analysis of the phylogenetic trees suggested that there was a significant variation of P. trimera. In addition, some accessions of P. trimera with morphological characteristics similar and Atalantia buxifolia were likely the intergeneric hybrids between the two species. Analysis of genetic variation, interspecific and intraspecific distances using ITS, matK and rbcL sequences shown that P. trimera was closely related to A. buxifolia, Severinia monophylla and Luvunga scandens. In addition, matK sequences represented as the effective candidate DNA barcode to identify and distinguish Paramignya species from others of the family Rutaceae.


1975 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Chandler ◽  
R. B. Highton

AbstractThirty-five species of mosquitoes (10 782 adults) were caught in modified CDC light-traps during the 27-week rice cultivation cycle at Ahero, Kenya, in the period September 1972 to March 1973. Only 0·8% were blood-fed and 5·1% gravid, indicating that the traps were sampling newly emerged adults. During weeks 1–7, before rice seedlings were transplanted, catches were small, but increased markedly from then until harvest (week 20). Two groups of mosquito species were recognised: the first, including Mansonia uniformis (Theo.), M. africana (Theo.) and Mimomyia splendens Theo., bred throughout the rice cycle; the second, including Anopheles gambiae s.l., A. pharoensis Theo., A. ziemanni Grünb., Culex poicilipes (Theo.) and C. antennatus (Becker), were affected by water depth and height of the rice crop. The slurry of shallow muddy pools which follows transplanting stimulated intense breeding of A. gambiae and A. pharoensis. Once the young plants were established, reflooding of the fields and subsequent growth of water plants and algae favoured the breeding of A. ziemanni and C. poicilipes. Towards the end of the rice cycle large numbers of C. antennatus were caught. It is concluded that mosquito control by means of insecticides or by irrigation management would be possible.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Eritja ◽  
Sarah Delacour-Estrella ◽  
Ignacio Ruiz-Arrondo ◽  
Mikel A. González ◽  
Carlos Barceló ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Active surveillance aimed at the early detection of invasive mosquito species is usually focused on seaports and airports as points of entry, and along road networks as dispersion paths. In a number of cases, however, the first detections of colonizing populations are made by citizens, either because the species has already moved beyond the implemented active surveillance sites or because there is no surveillance in place. This was the case of the first detection in 2018 of the Asian bush mosquito, Aedes japonicus, in Asturias (northern Spain) by the citizen science platform Mosquito Alert. Methods The collaboration between Mosquito Alert, the Ministry of Health, local authorities and academic researchers resulted in a multi-source surveillance combining active field sampling with broader temporal and spatial citizen-sourced data, resulting in a more flexible and efficient surveillance strategy. Results Between 2018 and 2020, the joint efforts of administrative bodies, academic teams and citizen-sourced data led to the discovery of this species in northern regions of Spain such as Cantabria and the Basque Country. This raised the estimated area of occurrence of Ae. japonicus from < 900 km2 in 2018 to > 7000 km2 in 2020. Conclusions This population cluster is geographically isolated from any other population in Europe, which raises questions about its origin, path of introduction and dispersal means, while also highlighting the need to enhance surveillance systems by closely combining crowd-sourced surveillance with public health and mosquito control agencies’ efforts, from local to continental scales. This multi-actor approach for surveillance (either passive and active) shows high potential efficiency in the surveillance of other invasive mosquito species, and specifically the major vector Aedes aegypti which is already present in some parts of Europe. Graphical abstract


Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 947
Author(s):  
Rishi Kondapaneni ◽  
Ashley N. Malcolm ◽  
Brian M. Vazquez ◽  
Eric Zeng ◽  
Tse-Yu Chen ◽  
...  

Florida lies within a subtropical region where the climate allows diverse mosquito species including invasive species to thrive year-round. As of 2021, there are currently 66 state-approved Florida Mosquito Control Districts, which are major stakeholders for Florida public universities engaged in mosquito research. Florida is one of the few states with extensive organized mosquito control programs. The Florida State Government and Florida Mosquito Control Districts have long histories of collaboration with research institutions. During fall 2020, we carried out a survey to collect baseline data on the current control priorities from Florida Mosquito Control Districts relating to (1) priority control species, (2) common adult and larval control methods, and (3) major research questions to address that will improve their control and surveillance programs. The survey data showed that a total of 17 distinct mosquito species were considered to be priority control targets, with many of these species being understudied. The most common control approaches included truck-mounted ultra-low-volume adulticiding and biopesticide-based larviciding. The districts held interest in diverse research questions, with many prioritizing studies on basic science questions to help develop evidence-based control strategies. Our data highlight the fact that mosquito control approaches and priorities differ greatly between districts and provide an important point of comparison for other regions investing in mosquito control, particularly those with similar ecological settings, and great diversity of potential mosquito vectors, such as in Florida. Our findings highlight a need for greater alignment of research priorities between mosquito control and mosquito research. In particular, we note a need to prioritize filling knowledge gaps relating to understudied mosquito species that have been implicated in arbovirus transmission.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Congzhao Fan ◽  
Xiaojin Li ◽  
Jun Zhu ◽  
Jingyuan Song ◽  
Hui Yao

The medicinal plantFerulahas been widely used in Asian medicine, especially in Uyghur medicine in Xinjiang, China. Given that various substitutes and closely related species have similar morphological characteristics,Ferulais difficult to distinguish based on morphology alone, thereby causing confusion and threatening the safe use ofFerula. In this study, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequences were analyzed and assessed for the accurate identification of two salableFerulaspecies (Ferula sinkiangensisandFerula fukangensis) and eight substitutes or closely related species. Results showed that the sequence length of ITS2 ranged from 451 bp to 45 bp, whereas guanine and cytosine contents (GC) were from 53.6% to 56.2%. A total of 77 variation sites were detected, including 63 base mutations and 14 insertion/deletion mutations. The ITS2 sequence correctly identified 100% of the samples at the species level using the basic local alignment search tool 1 and nearest-distance method. Furthermore, neighbor-joining tree successfully identified the genuine plantsF. sinkiangensisandF. fukangensisfrom their succedaneum and closely related species. These results indicated that ITS2 sequence could be used as a valuable barcode to distinguish Uyghur medicineFerulafrom counterfeits and closely related species. This study may broaden DNA barcoding application in the Uyghur medicinal plant field.


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