Genome sequence of Anopheles sinensis provides insight into genetics basis of mosquito competence for malaria parasites.
BACKGROUND
Anopheles sinensis is an important mosquito vector of Plasmodium vivax, which is the most frequent and widely distributed cause of recurring malaria throughout Asia, and particularly in China, Korea, and Japan.


RESULTS
We performed 454 next-generation sequencing and obtained a draft sequence of A. sinensis assembled into scaffolds spanning 220.8 million base pairs. Analysis of this genome sequence, we observed expansion and contraction of several immune-related gene families in anopheline relative to culicine mosquito species. These differences suggest that species-specific immune responses to Plasmodium invasion underpin the biological differences in susceptibility to Plasmodium infection that characterize these two mosquito subfamilies.


CONCLUSIONS
The A. sinensis genome produced in this study, provides an important resource for analyzing the genetic basis of susceptibility and resistance of mosquitoes to Plasmodium parasites research which will ultimately facilitate the design of urgently needed interventions against this debilitating mosquito-borne disease.
Dan
D
Zhou
Donghui
D
Zhang
Guohui
G
Ding
Linna
L
Shi
Qing
Q
Hou
Yuting
Y
Ye
Yang
Y
Xu
Huayun
H
Zhou
Chunrong
C
Xiong
Shengdi
S
Li
Jing
J
Yu
Shanchao
S
Hong
Xinyou
X
Yu
Ping
P
Zou
Chen
C
Chen
Xuelian
X
Chang
Weijie
W
Wang
Yuan
Y
Lv
Yan
Y
Sun
Lei
L
Ma
Department of Pathogen Biology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, P,R, China. shenbo@njmu.edu.cn.
Bo
B
Shen
Changliang
C
Zhu
D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000469:parasitology*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D016678:Genome; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000469:parasitology; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology; D010802:Phylogeny; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000502:physiology*