Abstract

Malaria is a severe public health problem in several developing tropical and subtropical countries. Anopheles aquasalis is the primary coastal malaria vector in Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands, and it has the peculiar feature of living in water with large changes in salinity. Recent research has recognised An. aquasalis as an important model for studying the interactions of murine and human Plasmodium parasites. This study presents the complete genome of An. aquasalis and offers insights into its evolution and physiology. The genome is similar in size and gene content to other Neotropical anophelines, with 162 Mb and 12,446 protein-coding genes. There are 1387 single-copy orthologs at the Diptera level (eg. An. gambiae, An. darlingi and Drosophila melanogaster). An. aquasalis diverged from An. darlingi, the primary malaria vector in inland South America, nearly 20 million years ago. Proteins related to ion transport and metabolism belong to the most abundant gene families with 660 genes. We identified gene families relevant to osmosis control (e.g., aquaporins, vacuolar-ATPases, Na+/K+-ATPases, and carbonic anhydrases). Evolutionary analysis suggests that all osmotic regulation genes are under strong purifying selection. We also observed low copy number variation in insecticide resistance and immunity-related genes for all known classical pathways. The data provided by this study offers candidate genes for further studies of parasite-vector interactions and for studies on how anophelines of brackish water deal with the high fluctuation in water salinity. We also established data and insights supporting An. aquasalis as an emerging Neotropical malaria vector model for genetic and molecular studies.

Details

Title
Unravelling the genome of the brackish water malaria vector Anopheles aquasalis
Author
Alencar, Rodrigo Maciel 1 ; Sepulveda, Cesar Camilo Prado 1 ; Martinez-Villegas, Luis 2 ; Bahia, Ana Cristina 3 ; Santana, Rosa Amélia 4 ; de Souza, Igor Belém 1 ; D’Elia, Gigliola Mayara Ayres 1 ; Duarte, Ana Paula Marques 1 ; de Lacerda, Marcus Vinicius Guimarães 5 ; Monteiro, Wuelton Marcelo 1 ; Secundino, Nágila Francinete Costa 6 ; Pimenta, Paulo Filemon Paolucci 6 ; Koerich, Leonardo Barbosa 7 

 Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.418153.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 0486 0972); Fundação de Medicina Tropical Heitor Vieira Dourado, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Tropical, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.412290.c) (ISNI:0000 0000 8024 0602) 
 Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto de Pesquisas René Rachou, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (GRID:grid.418068.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0723 0931); FIOCRUZ, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (GRID:grid.418068.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0723 0931) 
 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Laboratório de Bioquímica de Insetos e Parasitos, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (GRID:grid.8536.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 2294 473X) 
 Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.418153.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 0486 0972); Fundação de Medicina Tropical Heitor Vieira Dourado, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Tropical, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.412290.c) (ISNI:0000 0000 8024 0602); Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto de Pesquisa Leônidas & Maria Deane, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.418068.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0723 0931) 
 Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.418153.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 0486 0972); Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto de Pesquisa Leônidas & Maria Deane, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.418068.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0723 0931); University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, United States of America (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
 Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.418153.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 0486 0972); Fundação de Medicina Tropical Heitor Vieira Dourado, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina Tropical, Manaus, Brazil (GRID:grid.412290.c) (ISNI:0000 0000 8024 0602); Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto de Pesquisas René Rachou, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (GRID:grid.418068.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0723 0931); FIOCRUZ, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (GRID:grid.418068.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0723 0931) 
 Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Parasitologia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (GRID:grid.8430.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2181 4888) 
Pages
20472
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2892422710
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.