title: Anopheles pseudowillmori is the predominant malaria vector in Motuo County, Tibet Autonomous Region.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malaria is endemic in Linzhi Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), but the vector for malaria transmission had never been identified.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult Anopheles spp. were collected in Motuo County, Linzhi Prefecture on the Sino-Indian border in July and August, 2007. Multiplex PCR was adopted for species identification, and a nested PCR approach was used to detect sporozoites in the salivary glands of the mosquitoes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  3,675 mosquitoes of the Anopheles maculatus group were collected and processed for species identification. Among them, 3,602 (98.0%) were Anopheles pseudowillmori and 73 (2.0%) were Anopheles willmori. The Plasmodium vivax SSUrDNA fragment was amplified in two of 360 pooled An. pseudowillmori samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The local An. maculatus group comprises the species An. pseudowillmori and An. willmori. Anopheles pseudowillmori is considered the sole malaria vector in Motuo County in Linzhi Prefecture.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, PR China. jswu167@126.com
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jia-Yun
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Xue-Zhong
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shui-Sen
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Guo-Qing
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Lin-Hua
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000469:parasitology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D007303:Insect Vectors; D008288:Malaria / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000469:parasitology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D019476:Insect Proteins