CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The genetic structure of natural populations offers insight on the complexities of their dynamics, information that can be relevant to vector control strategies. Microsatellites are useful neutral markers to investigate the genetic structure and gene flow in Triatoma infestans , one of the main vectors of Chagas disease in South America. Recently, a heterogeneous pyrethroid resistant hotspot was found in the Argentine Gran Chaco, characterized by the highest levels of deltamethrin resistance found at the present time. We applied population genetics analyses to microsatellite and village data and search for associations between the genetic variability and the heterogeneous toxicological pattern previously found. We genotyped 10 microsatelliteloci in 67 T. infestans from 6 villages with no, low and high pyrethroid resistance. The most genetic diverse populations were those susceptible or with low values of resistance. In contrast, high resistance populations had lower herozygosity and some monomorphic loci. A negative association was found between variability and resistantratios. Global and pairwise F ST s indicated significant differentiation between populations. The only susceptible population was discriminated in all the performed studies. Low-resistance populations were also differentiated by a discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and were composed mostly by the same two genetic clusters according to Structure Bayesian algorithm. Individuals from the high-resistancepopulations were overlapped in the DAPC and shared significant proportions of agenetic cluster. These observations suggest that the resistant populations might have a common origin, although more genetic markers and samples are required to test this hypothesis more rigorously.

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