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Molecular taxonomy of anopheles from Ecuador, using mitochondrial DNA (Cytochrome c Oxidase I) and maximum parsimony optimization

Abstract:

The Anopheles species identification is complicated by the presence of several complexes of species and species whose specimens are difficult morphological distinction. We use 393 mitochondrial DNA sequences, Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) of 36 Neotropical species of Anophelinae deposited in GenBank and by constructing phylogenetic trees using maximum parsimony the objective was to corroborate or correct the molecular identification of five sequences/species of Anopheles collected in Ecuador and also availables in Genbank. We identified the taxonomic units, based on monophyly, phylogenetic species definition, tree topology, ocurrence of sequences from the type locality and genetic intra/inter divergence of clades. The topologies of the resulting trees corroborate the identification of sequences of Anopheles (Anopheles) pseudopunctipennis Theobald, An. (Ano.) eiseni Coquillett y An. (Nyssorhynchus) albimanus Wiedemann, while the molecular identification of An. (Nys.) rangeli Gabaldón, Cova-García y López (not "oswaldoi") is corrected and remains in doubt the correct identification of related sequences for sequences belonging to Punctimacula group, until have available a greater number of COI sequences from related species. However according to the criteria of type locality, these are not punctimacula in sensu stricto. Finally, the matrix of alignment DNA-COI haplotypes sequences of 241 × 36 species built for these analyzes will be useful for molecular identification of Anophelinae species from Ecuador and the Neotropics based on the portion of 520 bp COI (between 2,272- 2,792 bp).