DNA Barcoding for the Identification of the Malaria Secondary Vector, Anopheles aconitus, Collected in Western Thailand

Sedthapong  Laojun; Tanawat  Chaiphongpachara

Sedthapong Laojun Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand
Tanawat Chaiphongpachara Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand

Keywords: DNA barcoding, malaria vector, Anopheles mosquito, species identification

Abstract

Anopheles aconitus is widely distributed from Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal eastward to Hainan Island in China, and southward from southern China through Southeast Asia to Indonesia. In Thailand, this species is recognized as a secondary vector of malaria. This study aimed to confirm and identify the malaria secondary vector, An. aconitus, collected in Western Thailand using DNA barcoding. The BLAST results confirmed the identification of three An. aconitus samples collected from Western Thailand by comparing their DNA sequences with reference sequences in the GenBank database. All three samples, identified as IDs 001, 002, and 003, matched the An. aconitus references in the database. Furthermore, the phylogenetic tree elucidates the relationships among Anopheles species, showing that our An. aconitus samples from Ratchaburi (ID001, ID002, ID003) were grouped with other An. aconitus sequences from GenBank (MT434296 and MT753033), confirming they belong to the same species. These results provide guidelines for identifying malaria vectors and ultimately enhance the effectiveness of malaria surveillance.