Identifying the Main Mosquito Species in the Taiwan Strait Using DNA Barcoding.

In this study, we collected a total of 144 specimens from 42 mosquito specimens belonging to 9 genera from both sides of the Taiwan Strait during 2013 and 2014. We then applied the COI DNA Barcoding technique to classify the specimens and performed a phylogenetic analysis to infer the evolutionary history of these mosquitoes. Based on the analyses, we found that though the mosquitoes from different sides of the Taiwan Strait share a lot of commonality, they have a few regional specificities. Our results also suggested a very small divergences (1%~9%) between specimens from the same mosquito species and relatively large divergences (8%~25%) between specimens from different mosquito species. Within the same species, the divergence of specimens from the same region is significantly smaller than that between two regions. A few highly divergent species between Fujian and Taiwan (e.g., An.maculatus and Ae.elsiae) might be formed due to the so called "cryptic evolutionary events", in which the species has differentiation into cryptic species due to geographical differences without changing morphological characteristics. Finally, the phylogenetic analyses showed a very similar taxonomy to the historical one based on morphological characteristics, validating again the application of COI DNA Barcoding technique in classifying mosquito species. However, there are also some inconsistencies between COI DNA Barcoding and historical taxonomy, which points out the differences between mosquit...
Source: Combinatorial Chemistry and High Throughput Screening - Category: Chemistry Authors: Tags: Comb Chem High Throughput Screen Source Type: research