title: Phylogeny of fourteen Culex mosquito species, including the Culex pipiens complex, inferred from the internal transcribed spacers of ribosomal DNA.
abstract: Ribosomal DNA sequence divergence in the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS-1 and ITS-2) was examined for fourteen species and four subgenera (sixty-two clones) in the mosquito genus Culex (Diptera: Culicidae). A neighbour-joining tree produced with Kimura 2-parameter distances showed that each of the four subgenera was monophyletic at confidence probabilities of 70-99%. Culex (Lutzia) formed the sister group of Cx. (Culex). Two major clades, a Cx. pipiens complex-Cx. torrentium assemblage and a Cx. restuans-Cx. salinarius-Cx. erythrothorax assemblage, formed monophyletic groups. Cx. torrentium was closely related to members of the Cx. pipiens complex. Phylogenetic analysis of ITS-1 and ITS-2 sequences from members of the Cx. pipiens complex separated populations from northern latitudes and southern latitudes, but did not support the traditional taxa as monophyletic units.
authors.affiliation: Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, CDC, Fort Collins, CO 80522, USA.
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Crabtree
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Savage
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003465:Culex / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000145:classification*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D004247:DNA