C. Walton et al., THE USE OF MICROSATELLITES TO STUDY GENE FLOW IN NATURAL-POPULATIONS OF ANOPHELES MALARIA VECTORS IN AFRICA - POTENTIAL AND PITFALLS, Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 14(3), 1998, pp. 266-272
The potential of microsatellites as population genetic markers in the
malarial vectors Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles arabiensis was assess
ed using 4 loci. Substantial genetic divergence was found not only bet
ween these species but also between the Mopti and Forest chromosomal f
orms of An. gambiae, demonstrating that microsatellites do have the po
wer to detect barriers to gene Bow in these mosquitoes. However, appli
cation and interpretation of microsatellites was not necessarily strai
ghtforward. Despite the use of semiautomated fluorescent technology th
at enabled fragment sizes to be determined precisely, some difficulty
was encountered in allele classification. Sequence analysis revealed i
nsertions/deletions and base changes in the flanking regions of the mi
crosatellite as the probable cause of this problem. The implications o
f this and other potential pitfalls in the use of microsatellites to s
tudy vector populations are discussed.