Molecular characterization and species identification of the Anopheles dirus and An. minimus complexes in north-east India using r-DNA ITS-2

The sibling species composition of the Anopheles minimus and Anopheles dirus complexes is poorly known in the highly malarious north-eastern region of India where these two vector taxa are accountable for most of the malaria transmission among 30.7 million inhabitants. Prevalent members of these two complexes in this part of India were identified using sequences for the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA. Anopheles baimaii (species D) of the An. dirus complex and An. minimus s.s. (species A) of the An. minimus complex were detected in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland states. No intraspecific variation was observed in the ITS2 sequence (479 bp) of An. baimaii whereas a single substitution was detected in the ITS2 sequence (372 bp) of An. minimus from Nagaland state.