Reanalysis of rDNA-ITS2 region sequences of Anopheles cf. culicifacies 'Bluchistan' revealed conspecificity to A. dthali

• Published in: Current science (Bangalore) Vol. 97; no. 6; pp. 923 - 925
• Main Authors: Raghavendra, K., Reddy, B. P. Niranjan, Dash, A. P., Das, Aparup
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Current Science Association 25-09-2009
• Subjects: Anopheles; Biological taxonomies; Case reports; DNA; Genetic vectors; Malaria; New species; Phylogenetics; Polymerase chain reaction; RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS; Ribosomal DNA; Sequencing; Sibling species
• ISSN: 0011-3891

Anopheles cf. culicifacies 'Bluchistan' was reported as a new variant of A. culicifacies species complex based on internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region by Djadid and Saifi in 2001 (GenBank accession number AF_402296) and was later stated to be phylogenetically close to A. culicifacies sp. A. Though comparison of ITS2 sequences of the members of A. culicifacies sp. complex with A. cf. culicifacies 'Bluchistan' revealed appreciable polymorphism to state the existence of new species, local alignment search and phylogenetic analysis results showed the conspecificity to A. dthali. In short, the present study gives a case report of misidentification of a species that highlighted the importance of initial morphotaxonomical identification before conducting the computational molecular phylogenetic studies. Such misidentification may sometimes lead to the suggestion of wrong vector control strategies for disease management.