Dataset Information

New insights into the population structure of Anopheles gambiae s.s. in the Gulf of Guinea Islands revealed by Herves transposable elements.

ABSTRACT: Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile portions of DNA that are able to replicate and spread in the genome of many organisms. TEs can be used as a means to insert transgenes in insects, being stably inherited throughout generations. Anopheles gambiae is the main vector of human malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the extraordinary burden this disease imposes, the mosquito became a choice target for genetic control approaches with the purpose of reducing malaria transmission. In this study, we investigated the abundance and distribution of Herves TE in An. gambiae s.s. from Cameroon and four islands in the Gulf of Guinea, in order to determine their genetic structure. We have detected a population subdivision between Equatorial Guinea islands and the islands of São Tomé, Príncipe and mainland. This partitioning associates more with political rather than geographic boundaries, possibly reflecting different mainland source populations colonizing the islands.

SUBMITTER: Salgueiro P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3637158 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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New insights into the population structure of Anopheles gambiae s.s. in the Gulf of Guinea Islands revealed by Herves transposable elements.

Salgueiro Patrícia P Moreno Marta M Simard Frédéric F O'Brochta David D Pinto João J

PloS one 20130426 4

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile portions of DNA that are able to replicate and spread in the genome of many organisms. TEs can be used as a means to insert transgenes in insects, being stably inherited throughout generations. Anopheles gambiae is the main vector of human malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the extraordinary burden this disease imposes, the mosquito became a choice target for genetic control approaches with the purpose of reducing malaria transmission. In this study, we i ...[more]

PMID: 23638171

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Project description:The African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (A. gambiae), provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution of reproductive isolation because it is divided into two sympatric, partially isolated subtaxa known as M form and S form. With the annotated genome of this species now available, high-throughput techniques can be applied to locate and characterize the genomic regions contributing to reproductive isolation. In order to quantify patterns of differentiation within A. gambiae, we hybridized population samples of genomic DNA from each form to Affymetrix GeneChip microarrays. We found that three regions, together encompassing less than 2.8 Mb, are the only locations where the M and S forms are significantly differentiated. Two of these regions are adjacent to centromeres, on Chromosomes 2L and X, and contain 50 and 12 predicted genes, respectively. Sequenced loci in these regions contain fixed differences between forms and no shared polymorphisms, while no fixed differences were found at nearby control loci. The third region, on Chromosome 2R, contains only five predicted genes; fixed differences in this region were also verified by direct sequencing. These "speciation islands" remain differentiated despite considerable gene flow, and are therefore expected to contain the genes responsible for reproductive isolation. Much effort has recently been applied to locating the genes and genetic changes responsible for reproductive isolation between species. Though much can be inferred about speciation by studying taxa that have diverged for millions of years, studying differentiation between taxa that are in the early stages of isolation will lead to a clearer view of the number and size of regions involved in the genetics of speciation. Despite appreciable levels of gene flow between the M and S forms of A. gambiae, we were able to isolate three small regions of differentiation where genes responsible for ecological and behavioral isolation are likely to be located. We expect reproductive isolation to be due to changes at a small number of loci, as these regions together contain only 67 predicted genes. Concentrating future mapping experiments on these regions should reveal the genes responsible for reproductive isolation between forms.

Dataset Information

New insights into the population structure of Anopheles gambiae s.s. in the Gulf of Guinea Islands revealed by Herves transposable elements.

Publications

New insights into the population structure of Anopheles gambiae s.s. in the Gulf of Guinea Islands revealed by Herves transposable elements.

Similar Datasets

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