Isolation and Characterization of Polymorphic Microsatellite Markers from the Malaria Vector Anopheles fluviatilis Species T (Diptera: Culicidae).

ABSTRACT Anopheles fluviatilis James is an important malaria vector in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran. It has now been recognized as a complex of at least four sibling species—S, T, U, and V, among which species T is the most widely distributed species throughout India. The taxonomic status of these species is confusing owing to controversies prevailing in the literature. In addition, chromosomal inversion genotypes, which were considered species-diagnostic for An. fluviatilis species T, are unreliable due to the existence of polymorphism in some populations. To study the genetic diversity at population level, we isolated and characterized 20 microsatellite markers from microsatellite-enriched genomic DNA library of An. fluviatilis T, of which 18 were polymorphic while two were monomorphic. The number of alleles per locus among polymorphic markers ranged from 4 to 19, and values for observed and expected heterozygosities varied from 0.352 to 0.857 and from 0.575 to 0.933, respectively. Thirteen markers ...