Discrimination of all members of the Anopheles punctulatus complex by polymerase chain reaction--restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.

A method has been developed to identify the members of the Anopheles punctulatus complex using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Members of the An. punctulatus complex are the most important vectors of malaria in the southwest Pacific and consist of 10 cryptic species, An. farauti no. 1-7, An. punctulatus, An. sp. near punctulatus, and An. koliensis. For each species, PCR amplification of the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer produced a 750-basepair product. Digestion with Msp I and electrophoresis on a 3.0% agarose gel results in banding patterns unique to each species. Isolates of the same species from different locations gave an identical pattern. The technique is sensitive enough so that a PCR-RFLP can be generated from as little as a single mosquito leg, allowing the rest of the mosquito to be used for other important epidemiologic analyses such as determining host feeding source, and for parasite detection.