Determination of genetic diversity in anopheles sacharovi populati̇ons sampled from the Aegean Region wi̇th the help of mi̇crosatellite markers

The World Health Organization reported that 40% of the human population on earth is at risk of malaria, and that 300-350 million people are affected by this disease every year, and approximately 2 million people die from this disease. Malaria has been defined as one of the three most important infectious diseases today, along with tuberculosis and AIDS. Studies have shown that Anopheles species can be vectors of many arboviruses such as Rift valley fever virus, Onyong-nyong virus, West Nile virus, as well as malaria vectors. Because of these features, Anopheles species have been the main target organisms of vectorial disease control and vector control studies in many parts of the world. Due to its vector feature, this organism is intensively struggled with and accordingly, resistance development occurs. In this direction, it is important to determine the genetic structure and gene flow levels of populations in terms of revealing the spread of resistance alleles. In this study, analyzes were performed using microsatellite (SSR) markers to provide information about the genetic structure and gene flow of the An sacharovi populations, one of the important vector species, of the provinces of Muğla, Aydın, İzmir, Balıkesir, Çanakkale, where the Mediterranean climate prevails, and Denizli, which is one of the provinces in the transition zone, where a relatively more continental climate is experienced, located on the coastline of the Aegean Region. For this purpose, adult individuals were obtained from 6 provinces. In our study using 8 microsatellite loci, the mean number of alleles (na) for 6 cities was found to be 6.63, the mean effective allele number (ne) was 3.66, and the observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity value was 0.65 in the An. sacharovi population. Possible reasons for the high genetic diversity and gene flow values we obtained are that microsatellite loci are not subject to selection pressure, the climatic conditions of our country are quite suitable for this organism, and it produces a large number of offspring annually.