PHYSICAL MAP OF THE MALARIA VECTOR ANOPHELES-GAMBIAE

Random cDNA clones, cosmid clones and RAPD polymorphic fragments have been localized by in situ hybridization to the ovarian nurse cell poly tene chromosomes of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. We thus esta blished 85 molecular markers for 110 sites within the whole A. gambiae polytene chromosome complement. The cDNA clones analyzed were isolate d at random, and their exact localizations were determined by in situ hybridization. For 15 of the cDNA clones, a partial nucleotide sequenc e has been obtained; for nine of them sequence searches in the GenBank database revealed high degrees of similarity with published sequences . The cosmid clones analyzed were obtained as the result of screening with a few of the aforementioned cDNA clones of particular interest, o r taken from a small set of randomly isolated cosmid clones. The RAPD clones are polymorphic fragments, potentially diagnostic for the vario us chromosomal forms of A. gambiae that are currently being analyzed.