The suitability of restriction fragment length polymorphism markers for evaluating genetic diversity among and synteny between mosquito species.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers derived from the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, were used in hybridizations to genomic DNA of the following mosquito species: Ae. albopictus, Ae. togoi, Armigeres subalbatus, Culex pipiens, and Anopheles gambiae. Interspecific hybridization with Ae. aegypti probes varied from 50% (An. gambiae) to 100% (Ae. albopictus) under high stringency conditions. We demonstrated the usefulness of using RFLP profiles to examine genetic diversity between mosquito populations; Ae. aegypti RFLP markers were used to examine genetic relatedness between 10 laboratory strains of Ae. aegypti as well as between nine populations representing four Cx. pipiens subspecies. These results indicate that many Ae. aegypti RFLP markers should have direct applicability in gaining a better understanding of genome structure in other mosquito species, including RFLP linkage mapping and determinations of genetic relatedness among field populations.