Malaria Vector Biology in Brazil: Genetics and Ecology

描述（由申请人提供）：在巴西和哥伦比亚的疟疾流行地区，疟疾仍然是一个毁灭性的健康问题，每年报告的病例超过60万例。我们的生态和进化证据表明，按蚊媒介之间的潜在生物复杂性在新热带区疟疾的持续传播中起着重要作用。我们有令人信服的数据，从城市周边的设置，按蚊marajoara的Albitarsis复杂的重要性增加，甚至取代了主要的疟疾媒介。darlingi在巴西亚马逊河流域东北部，虽然一个。darlingi在边境和河流定居点仍然很重要。我们已经描述了一种新的疟疾媒介，按蚊albitarsis E，从巴西亚马逊河流域北方城市周围的稀树草原。我们假设一个。marajoara仅限于潮湿的森林和An. albitarsis E仅限于稀树草原。我们最近发现了两个新物种，一个。albitarsis F，来自哥伦比亚东北部; albitarsis G，产于巴西亚马逊河流域中部。两者都在疟疾流行区，都是假定的疟疾病媒。两者都没有被定性。对新热带区疟疾病媒进行有效的生物信息控制需要三个领域的贡献：快速准确的病媒识别、种群遗传学和生态学。我们假设，疟疾传播的独特模式（边境与城市周边）往往与人为栖息地的改变，差异有利于不同的媒介物种，有不同的生态要求。我们建议评估几个新发现的物种与杂交实验和细胞学的分类地位，并快速现场鉴定，我们将改进我们的分子标记，更容易区分所有物种的Albitarsis复杂。我们将测试我们的假设之间的栖息地隔离。marajoara和一个。达林吉通过繁殖地点表征。我们将评估安的重要性。marajoara，一个. albitarsis F，和安氏按蚊（An.通过评估物种丰富度、叮咬时间、感染和异质栖息地的宿主选择，在哥伦比亚城市周围地方性疟疾地区的darlingi。在巴西，我们确定，人口结构和历史有很大的不同。darlingi和An. marajoara。我们将使用样带数据来评估气候变量和公路与河流在每个物种的分布，种群结构和基因流动中的作用。疟疾是巴西和哥伦比亚最重要的公共卫生问题之一。更好地了解蚊子媒介的生态和进化（本研究的对象）将有助于减少人与蚊子的接触和疟疾，疟疾对全球最贫困的、主要是农村社区的影响尤为严重。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Malaria remains a devastating health problem in endemic malaria regions of Brazil and Colombia with over 600,000 annual cases reported. Our ecological and evolutionary evidence indicate that the underlying biological complexity among anopheline vectors plays a significant role in continued malaria transmission in the Neotropics. We have convincing data from peri-urban settings that Anopheles marajoara of the Albitarsis Complex increases in importance and even replaces the primary malaria vector An. darlingi in NE Amazonian Brazil, although An. darlingi continues to be important in frontier and riverine settlements. We have described a new malaria vector, Anopheles albitarsis E, from peri-urban savanna in northern Amazonian Brazil. We hypothesize that An. marajoara is restricted to moist forest and An. albitarsis E is restricted to savanna. We recently detected two new species, An. albitarsis F, from NE Colombia, and An. albitarsis G, from Central Amazonian Brazil. Both are in endemic malaria areas, and both are putative malaria vectors. Neither has been characterized. Effective biologically-informed control of Neotropical malaria vectors requires contributions from three areas: fast and accurate vector identification, population genetics and ecology. We hypothesize that distinctive patterns of malaria transmission (frontier vs. peri-urban) are often related to anthropogenic habitat alterations that differentially favor various vector species that have distinct ecological requirements. We propose to evaluate the taxonomic status of several newly detected species with crossing experiments and cytology, and for rapid field identification, we will improve our molecular markers to more easily distinguish among all species in the Albitarsis Complex. We will test our hypothesis of habitat segregation between An. marajoara and An. darlingi by breeding site characterization. We will assess the importance of An. marajoara, An. albitarsis F, and An. darlingi in peri-urban endemic malaria localities in Colombia through evaluation of species abundance, biting time, infection and host selection in heterogeneous habitat sites. In Brazil, we determined that population structure and history differ substantially for An. darlingi and An. marajoara. We will use data from transects to evaluate the roles of climatic variables and highways vs. rivers in distribution, population structure and gene flow in each species. Project Narrative: Malaria is one of the most important public health problems in Brazil and Colombia. A better understanding of the ecology and evolution of the mosquito vectors, the objects of this study, will help to reduce human-mosquito contact and malaria, which disproportionately affects the poorest, mostly rural communities globally.