Abstract
Mosquitoes of family Culicidae (Diptera) are among the most important insects, regarding public health issues, since dozens of species are capable of transmitting etiological agents of infections such as malaria, dengue, filariasis and yellow fever. These diseases together are responsible for millions of human deaths in the world. Owing to such medical relevance, Culicids have been the target of several attempts of eradication and populational control. Control methods frequently have as a limiting factor the microevolution of mosquitoes, process through these insects develop resistance to insecticides and tolerance to polluted urban environments. Thus, researching on microevolution of Culicids becomes a central question in medical entomology. Microevolutionary surveys usually begin with the characterization of populations, which are described regarding biological parameters and subsequently compared through geographic or temporal transects. The culicids Culex quinquefasciatus and Ochlerotatus scapularis, vectors of filariases and arboviruses, are promising models for microevolutionary studies due to its medical importance and some other biological peculiarities: in State of São Paulo (Brazil), Cx. quinquefasciatus is adapted to live in environments with or without insecticides and pollution. The species Och. scapularis may occur in places of distinct degrees of urbanization and pollution, and is suspect of actually comprising a complex of cryptic species. The objective of the present project is to perform, for each one of these species, comparisons among populations from those distinct environmental conditions, aiming to identify possible evolutionary significant biological variations. Such evaluations will be as well compared between samplings from the winter and the summer. One intends to test as well the hypothesis of Och. scapularis being actually a complex of cryptic species. The biological parameters for comparison will be: chromosomal characters, ribosomal DNA aspects, wings geometric morphometrics and eggs micrography. We expect to obtain information on populational aspects of these species, which in a future should help to improve control methods for these disease vectors. (AU)
Scientific publications
(11)
(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)
VIRGINIO, FLAVIA;
DOMINGUES, VICTOR;
GOMES DA SILVA, LETICIA CECILIA;
ANDRADE, LUCAS;
BRAGHETTO, KELLY ROSA;
SUESDEK, LINCOLN.
WingBank: A Wing Image Database of Mosquitoes.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION,
v. 9,
APR 16 2021.
Web of Science Citations: 0.
LORENZ, CAMILA;
ALMEIDA, FABIO;
ALMEIDA-LOPES, FERNANDA;
LOUISE, CAROLINE;
PEREIRA, STELLA N.;
PETERSEN, VIVIAN;
VIDAL, PALOMA O.;
VIRGINIO, FLAVIA;
SUESDEK, LINCOLN.
Geometric morphometrics in mosquitoes: What has been measured?.
INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION,
v. 54,
p. 205-215,
OCT 2017.
Web of Science Citations: 16.