title: Genetic deviation in geographically close populations of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae): influence of environmental barriers in South India.
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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Chithravel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vadivalagan
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, 641 043, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Pushparaj
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karthika
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Kadarkarai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murugan
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Chellasamy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Panneerselvam
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Manickam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paulpandi
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Pari
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Madhiyazhagan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Protection, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou, 350013, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, 71491, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Al Thabiani
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Research Chair in Laser Diagnosis of Cancer, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamad Saleh
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Alsalhi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Research Chair in Laser Diagnosis of Cancer, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Sandhanasamy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Devanesan
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nicoletti
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, Madurai, India.
authors.forename: Rajaiah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paramasivan
authors.affiliation: Division of Entomology, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Devakumar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dinesh
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124, Pisa, Italy. g.benelli@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Benelli
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology; D000354:Africa, Western; D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D003715:Dengue / Q000635:transmission; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D051456:Gene Flow; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Ancestral lineage; Arbovirus; CO1; DNA barcoding; Molecular ecology; Mosquito-borne diseases; Phylogenetics; Purifying selection; Yellow fever