Sequence differences of rDNA-ITS2 and species-diagnostic PCR assay of Anopheles sinensis and Anopheles anthropophagus from China

Anopheles sinensis and An. anihropophagus are two morphologically indistinguishable yet genetically and behaviorally distinct mosquito species that vary dramatically in their importance as vectors of malaria inChina. The sequence of the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) was determined for bothspecies to assess the species differentiation. The lengths of ITS2 was 468 hp for An. sinensis and 452 hp forAn. anthropophagus. Interspecies difference in sequence was 28. 8%. Intraspecies sequence divergence wasnegligible. A PCR method was developed for distinguishing the two species based on the species-specific variations of the ITS2 sequences. The method would amplify a diagnostic fragment in length of 425 hp for An.sinensis and 253 hp for An. anthropophagus. Field collections from 12 localities in 10 provinces of China weretested. In 440 mosquitoes identified by adult morphological characteristics as An. sinensis, 291 (66. 2 % ) wereidentified later as An. sinensis and 56 (12. 7 % ) as An. anthropophagus, the remaining 93 (22. 1 % ) were notamplified by PCR. The results showed that the morphological characteritics of adult was not reliable for fieldidentification. The PCR assay was a simple, fast and reliable method for species identification.