Morphological and Genetic Differentiation within the Southernmost Vector of Chagas Disease: Triatoma patagonica (Hemiptera ? Reduviidae)

NATTERO JULIETA; CROCCO, LILIANA; PITA SEBASTIAN; PANZERA YANINA; CALLEROS LUCIA ; PANZERA FRANCISCO

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2016 p. 1 - 15

1932-6203

The epidemiological importance of Chagas disease vectors largely depends on theirspreading ability and adaptation to domestic habitats. Triatoma patagonica is a secondary vector of Chagas disease endemic of Argentina, and it has been found colonizing domiciles and most commonly peridomiciliary structures in several Argentine provinces and morphological variation along its distribution range have been described. To asses if population differentiation represents geographic variants or true biological species, multiple genetic and phenotypic approaches and laboratory cross-breeding were performed in T. patagonicaperidomestic populations. Analyses of chromatic variation of forewings, their size and the content of C-heterochromatin on chromosomes revealed that populations are structured following a North-South latitudinal variation. Cytochrome c oxidase I mitochondrial gene (COI) nucleotide analysis showed a mean genetic distance of 5.2% between the most distant populations. The cross-breeding experiments suggest a partial reproductive isolation between some populations with 40% of couples not laying eggs and low hatching efficiency.Our findings reveal phenotypic and genetic variations that suggest an incipient differentiation processes among T. patagonica populations with a pronounced phenotypic and genetic divergence between the most distant populations. The population differentiation here reported is probably related to differential environmental conditions and it could reflect the occurrence of an incipient speciation process in T. patagonica.