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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 73(4), 2005, pp. 749-752
Copyright © 2005 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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SHORT REPORT


PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF THE ANTHROPOPHILIC PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM MALARIA VECTORS IN AFRICA

JONATHON C. MARSHALL, JEFFREY R. POWELL*, AND ADALGISA CACCONE
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Yale Institute for Biospherics Studies–Molecular Systematics and Conservation Biology Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

 

ABSTRACT

Malaria kills more than one million people a year, and understanding the historical association between its most notorious causative agent, Plasmodium falciparum, and its mosquito vectors is important in fighting the disease. We present a phylogenetic analysis of a number of species within the mosquito subgenus Cellia based on a selection of mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Although some of these relationships have been estimated in other studies, generally few species were included and/or statistical support at many nodes was low. Here we include two additional species of anthropophilic P. falciparum malaria vectors and reanalyze these relationships using a Bayesian method that allows us to simultaneously incorporate different models of evolution. We report data that indicate a paraphyletic relationship between five anthropophilic African mosquito vectors. Such a relationship suggests that these species can serve as independent natural experiments for anopheline immunologic responses to regular, prolonged contact with P. falciparum.

Received February 5, 2005. Accepted for publication May 24, 2005.

Acknowledgments: We thank Ralph E. Harbach for useful discussions on phylogenetic relationships among anopheline mosquito species; Vincent Medjibe for supplying the An. nili and An. moucheti samples collected in Bayanga, Central African Republic; and Carlo Costantini (Centre National de Recherche et Formation Sur le Paludisme, Ougadouguo, Burkina Faso) for identifying them. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their very useful and insightful comments on an earlier draft of this report.

Financial support: Jonathon C. Marshall is supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) multidisciplinary parasitology training grant (PI: Dr. Diane McMahon-Pratt, Yale School of Public Health #2T32AI07404). Jeffrey R. Powell is supported by NIH grant RO1 AI46018.

* Address correspondence to Jeffrey R. Powell, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, PO Box 8105, New Haven, CT 06520-8105. E-mail: jeffrey.powell{at}yale.edu

Authors’ addresses: Jonathon C. Marshall, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, PO Box 8105, New Haven, CT 96520-8105, Telephone: 203-432-3886, Fax: 203-432-6066, E-mail: jonathan.marshall{at}yale.edu. Jeffrey R. Powell, ESC 170, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 96520-8105, Telephone: 203-432-3887, Fax: 203-432-6066, E-mail: jeffrey.powell{at}yale.edu. Adalgisa Caccone, ESC 140, Yale Institute for Biospherics Studies–Molecular Systematics and Conservation Biology Laboratory, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 96520-8105, Telephone: 203-432-5259, Fax: 203-432-7394, E-mail: adalgisa.caccone{at}yale.edu.






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Copyright © 2005 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.