| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Anopheles lesteri </it>is a primary vector of <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. in central China. A complete understanding of vector population structure and the processes responsible for the differentiation is important to the vector-based malaria control programmes and for identifying heterogeneity in disease transmission as a result of discrete vector populations. There is no adequate <it>An. lesteri </it>population genetic data available.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Polymorphism of sequence variations in mitochondrial COII and Cytb genes were assessed to explore the level of genetic variability and differentiation among six populations of <it>An. lesteri </it>from China.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 30 (4.37%) and 21 (5.33%) polymorphic sites for mtDNA-COII and Cytb gene, respectively. Totally 31 COII and 30 Cytb haplotypes were obtained. The range of <it>F<sub>ST </sub></it>values was from 0.101 to 0.655 by mtDNA-COII, and 0.029 to 0.231 by Cytb gene. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that the percentage of variation within populations (65.83%, 88.48%) was greater than that among populations (34.17%, 11.52%) using both genes. The Tajima's <it>D </it>and Fu's <it>Fs </it>values were all negative, except Tajima's <it>D </it>values of YN and HNB populations, which suggest a large number of low-frequency mutations in populations and the populations were in expansion proceeding.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Levels of genetic variation within <it>An. lesteri </it>populations were higher than among them. While these results may suggest considerable levels of gene flow, other explanations, such as the effect of historical population perturbations can also be hypothesized.</p>
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