Multilocus nuclear DNA markers reveal population structure and demography of Anopheles minimus

Utilization of multiple putatively neutral DNA markers for inferring evolutionary history of species population is considered to be the most robust approach. Molecular population genetic studies have been conducted in many species of Anopheles genus, but studies based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are still very scarce. Anopheles minimus is one of the principal malaria vectors of Southeast (SE) Asia including the Northeastern (NE) India. Although population genetic studies with mitochondrial genetic variation data have been utilized to infer phylogeography of the SE Asian populations of this species, limited information on the population structure and demography of Indian An. minimus is available. We herewith have developed multilocus nuclear genetic approach with SNP markers located in X chromosome of An. minimus in eight Indian and two SE Asian population samples (121 individual mosquitoes in total) to infer population history and test several hypotheses on the phylogeography of this species. While the Thai population sample of An. minimus presented the highest nucleotide diversity, majority of the Indian samples were also fairly diverse. In general, An. minimus populations were moderately substructured in the distribution range covering SE Asia and NE India, largely falling under three distinct genetic clusters. Moreover, demographic expansion events could be detected in the majority of the presently studied populations of An. minimus. Additional DNA sequencing of the mitochondrial COII region in a subset of the samples (40 individual mosquitoes) corroborated the existing hypothesis of Indian An. minimus falling under the earlier reported mitochondrial lineage B.