Would tropical climatic variations impact the genetic variability of triatomines: Rhodnius ecuadoriensis, principal vector of Chagas disease in Ecuador?

Would tropical climatic variations impact the genetic variability of triatomines: Rhodnius ecuadoriensis, principal vector of Chagas disease in Ecuador? Acta Trop. 2020 May 18;:105530 Authors: Villacís AG, Bustillos JJ, Depickère S, Sánchez D, Yumiseva CA, Troya-Zuleta A, Barnabé C, Grijalva MJ, Brenière SF Abstract Rhodnius ecuadoriensis is one of the most important vector species of Chagas disease in Ecuador. This species is distributed in the Central coast region and in the south Andean region, and an incipient speciation process between these geographical populations was previously proposed. The current population genetics study only focused on the Central coast region and analyzed 96 sylvatic specimens of R. ecuadoriensis associated with Phytelephas aequatorialis palm trees. We used Cytb and 16S-rRNA sequences and a Cytb-16S-rRNA concatenated set to explore (i) the genetic variability, spatial structuring, and demographic history of R. ecuadoriensis, and to determine (ii) the relationship between the genetic and climatic variabilities. A particularly high genetic variability was observed without detectable general genetic structure; only some terminal genetic clusters were observed. We did not observe isolation by geographical distance (IBD), and it is likely that ancient expansion occurred, according to Fs index and mismatch distribution for Cytb-16S-rRNA concatenated sequences. Hierarchical clustering showed that the curr...
Source: Acta Tropica - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Acta Trop Source Type: research