Abstract

MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF CULEX QUINQUEFASCIATUS BY CYTOCHROME C OXIDASE SUBUNIT II

Sahar Abd* and Emad Ahmed

Abstract

Molecular Genetic methods were used in this study to find out the genetic diversity of Culex collected from Nahrawan region of Baghdad in Iraq, the amplified segments of mitochondrial DNA which consisted of the genes COII by using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with the existence of pairs from the specific primers. The PCR amplified fragments in these mosquitoes were approximately 685 base pairs and the amino acids were more than 95% similar between Culex quinquefasciatus from USA and C. quinquefosciatus from Baghdad, and there is a substitution in 31 bases distributed along the nucleotide sequence, the variations ranged between 16 type of transition while the 12 type Transversion. These segments contain the major amino acid residues of cytochrome c oxidase included in electron transport and ligand binding.

Keywords: Culex mosquitoes; DNA barcode; cytochrome oxidase II (COII), Phylogenetic Analysi.