Anopheles sp.
Introduction
Anopheles /əˈnɒfɪliːz/[1] (Greek anofelís: “useless”[2]) is a genus of mosquito first described and named by J. W. Meigen in 1818 [3]. About 460 species are recognised; while over 100 can transmit human malaria, only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria in humans in endemic areas. Anopheles gambiae is one of the best known, because of its predominant role in the transmission of the most dangerous malaria parasite species (to humans) – Plasmodium falciparum.
The name comes from the Greek αν, an, meaning “not”, and όφελος, óphelos, meaning “profit”, and translates to “useless” [1]. Anopheles mosquitoes kill about 440,000 people each year because of malaria.
Some species of Anopheles also can serve as the vectors for canine heartworm Dirofilaria immitis, the filariasis-causing species Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi, and viruses such as one that causes O’nyong’nyong fever. An association of brain tumor incidence and malaria suggests the Anopheles might transmit a virus or other agent that could cause a brain tumor [4].
Mosquitoes in other genera (Aedes, Culex, Culiseta, Haemagogus, and Ochlerotatus) can also serve as vectors of disease agents, but not malaria.
Evolution
The ancestors of Drosophila and the mosquitoes diverged 260 million years ago [5]. The culicine and Anopheles clades of mosquitoes diverged between 120 million years ago and 150 million years ago [5][6]. The Old and New World Anopheles species subsequently diverged between 80 million years ago and 95 million years ago [5][6]. Anopheles darlingi diverged from the African and Asian malaria vectors ∼100 million years ago [7]. The Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus clades diverged between 80 million years ago and 36 million years ago. A molecular study of several genes in seven species has provided additional support for an expansion of this genus during the Cretaceous period [8].
The Anopheles genome, at 230–284 million base pairs (Mbp), is comparable in size to that of Drosophila, but considerably smaller than those found in other culicine genomes (528 Mbp–1.9 Gbp). Like most culicine species, the genome is diploid with six chromosomes.
The only known fossils of this genus are those of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) dominicanus Zavortink & Poinar contained in Dominican amber from the Late Eocene (40.4 million years ago to 33.9 million years ago) and Anopheles rottensis Statz contained in German amber from the Late Oligocene (28.4 million years ago to 23 million years ago).
(source & for more information : wikipedia)
Bibliographic references
- “Anopheles – Define Anopheles at Dictionary.com”. Dictionary.com.
- Angus Stevenson (19 August 2010). Oxford Dictionary of English. Oxford University Press. pp. 64–. ISBN 978-0-19-957112-3.
- Meigen, J. W. (1818). Systematische Beschreibung der Bekannten Europäischen Zweiflügeligen Insekten Vol. 1. Forstmann, Aachen, 332 pp.
- Steven Lehrer (2010). “Anopheles mosquito transmission of brain tumor” (PDF). Medical Hypotheses. 74 (1): 167–168. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2009.07.005. PMID 19656635.
- Moreno M, Marinotti O, Krzywinski J, Tadei WP, James AA, Achee NL, Conn JE (2010). “Complete mtDNA genomes of Anopheles darlingi and an approach to anopheline divergence time”. Malaria journal. 9: 127. doi:10.1186/1475-2875-9-127. PMC 2877063 Freely accessible. PMID 20470395.
- Eric Calvo; Van M Pham; Osvaldo Marinotti; John F. Andersen; José M. C. Ribeiro (2009). “The salivary gland transcriptome of the neotropical malaria vector Anopheles darlingi reveals accelerated evolution of genes relevant to hematophagy”. BMC Genomics. 10 (1): 57. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-57. PMC 2644710 Freely accessible. PMID 19178717.
- Marinotti O, Cerqueira GC, de Almeida LG, Ferro MI, Loreto EL, Zaha A, Teixeira SM, Wespiser AR, Almeida E Silva A, Schlindwein AD, Pacheco AC, da Silva AL, Graveley BR, Walenz BP, de Araujo Lima B, Ribeiro CA, Nunes-Silva CG, de Carvalho CR, de Almeida Soares CM, de Menezes CB, Matiolli C, Caffrey D, Araújo DA, de Oliveira DM, Golenbock D, Grisard EC, Fantinatti-Garboggini F, de Carvalho FM, Barcellos FG, Prosdocimi F, May G, de Azevedo GM Junior, Guimarães GM, Goldman GH, Padilha IQ, Batista JD, Ferro JA, Ribeiro JM, Fietto JL, Dabbas KM, Cerdeira L, Agnez-Lima LF, Brocchi M, de Carvalho MO, Teixeira MD, de Mascena Diniz Maia M, Goldman MH, Cruz Schneider MP, Felipe MS, Hungria M, Nicolás MF, Pereira M, Montes MA, Cantão ME, Vincentz M, Rafael MS, Silverman N, Stoco PH, Souza RC, Vicentini R, Gazzinelli RT, Neves RD, Silva R, Astolfi-Filho S, Maciel TE, Urményi TP, Tadei WP, Camargo EP, de Vasconcelos AT. The genome of Anopheles darlingi, the main neotropical malaria vector. Nucleic Acids Res
- Jyotsana Dixit; Hemlata Srivastava; Meenu Sharma; Manoj K. Das; O.P. Singh; K. Raghavendra; Nutan Nanda; Aditya P. Dash; D. N. Saksena; Aparup Das (2010). “Phylogenetic inference of Indian malaria vectors from multilocus DNA sequences”. Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 10 (6): 755–763. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2010.04.008. PMID 20435167.