title: Genetic Relationships and Spatial Genetic Structure Among Populations of Rhodnius prolixus (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in Colombia and Venezuela Based on Mitochondrial Cytochrome-b Sequences.
abstract: One hundred twenty Rhodnius prolixus (Stal) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) specimens from 6 Colombian Departments and 1 Venezuelan State had 594-bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene sequenced to improve the understanding of evolutionary processes that shape the main vector of Chagas disease. The levels of genetic diversity for this species were low-medium with reference to other bugs. The genetic heterogeneity among the populations was very limited which means there has been extensive gene flow and/or very recent split processes. The overall sample as well as some individual populations showed evidence of recent population expansions (with the exception of Arauca, which yielded evidence of a bottleneck for a mismatch distribution). This expansion (11,000 or 2000-25,000 year ago depending of two procedures employed) coincides with the ending of the last intense glacial conditions during the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene that had a warmer and wetter climate. Some of our autocorrelation analyses (AIDA and Genetic Landscape Interpolation Analysis) indicated local patches of high genetic similarity but no globally significant spatial structure. We did show an original haplotype distributed throughout the entirety of the geographical area studied.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Enfermedades Tropicales (CINTROP), Univ Industrial de Santander (UIS), Bucaramanga, Colombia.|Lab de Genética de Poblaciones Molecular y Biología Evolutiva, Unidad de Genética, Depto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Univ Javeriana, Cra 7ª No 43-82, Bogotá, DC, Colombia.
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Luna-Marín
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Enfermedades Tropicales (CINTROP), Univ Industrial de Santander (UIS), Bucaramanga, Colombia.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Angulo-Silva
authors.affiliation: Lab de Biología Molecular (CINBIN), Escuela de Biología, Univ Industrial de Santander (UIS), Bucaramanga, Colombia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hernández-Torres
authors.affiliation: Lab de Genética de Poblaciones Molecular y Biología Evolutiva, Unidad de Genética, Depto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Univ Javeriana, Cra 7ª No 43-82, Bogotá, DC, Colombia. mruizgar@yahoo.es.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruiz-García
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003105:Colombia; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D040342:Genetic Structures; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007303:Insect Vectors; D012239:Rhodnius / Q000235:genetics*; D014687:Venezuela
chemical_list: D045303:Cytochromes b
keywords: DNA; Vector of Chagas disease; genetic diversity; population expansion; spatial autocorrelation