Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Anopheles and Cellia subgenus anophelines (Diptera: Culicidae) in temperate and tropical regions of Iran.

Molecular studies on population genetics of speciation across Iran have recently started. Morphological and molecular studies have showed that 25 species of genus Anopheles are present in the country; however, relationships between vector and non-vector species as well as compatibility of morphological characters with molecular data have not been verified. Molecular phylogenetic analysis was undertaken on the Anopheles and Cellia subgenus members internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequences submitted to GenBank among the Oriental and Palearctic members in north and southern Iran. rDNA-ITS2 sequences were extracted from the GenBank and analyzed using bioinformatics softwares: BLAST, ITS2 annotation tool (version 3.0.13), ClustalW, and MEGA5 in neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood algorithms. There are not any submitted sequences in GenBank from Iran for the following seven species: Anopheles algeriensis, Anopheles marteri, Anopheles plumbeus, Anopheles peditaeniatus, Anopheles melanoon, Anopheles subpictus, and Anopheles mongolensis; therefore, they have not been included in the study. Although these molecular-based phylogenetic trees match well enough with classical morphological taxonomy, the arrangement of species did not match with morphological classification in some cases. Correct species identification is essential for control of vector born disease such as malaria; therefore, phylogenetic methods will help to understand the relationship among the members of the target species within the genus Anopheles. It could also help us to design molecular markers for species differentiation particularly in cryptic species, which is difficult to classify them based on morphological features.