Two Triatoma dimidiata Clades (Chagas Disease Vector) Associated with Different Habitats in Southern Mexico and Central America

Abstract

Triatoma dimidiata is the only reported Chagas disease vector in Campeche, Mexico. The purpose of this study was to determine the genetic variability of vectors from Campeche coastal and rain forest areas and establish a phylogenetic relationship with other T. dimidiata populations by analyzing the internal transcribed spacer-2 (ITS-2) region. The sequence length of samples from Campeche ranged from 469 to 478 basepairs. The ITS-2 variability among the populations enabled us to classify them into two clades with an 18-22 nucleotide difference. The genetic distance (0.042) between them confirms this divergence. Phylogenetic analysis of gene genealogies confirmed these two clades. Furthermore, the population genetic analyses showed two groups with little genetic similarity or migration between them. One group was associated with the tropical forest area and the other group was associated with a mainly coastal distribution. This correlation was also observed when T. dimidiata from other regions of Mexico and Central America were analyzed.