Molecular Investigation of the Population Differentiation of Phlebotomus papatasi, Important Vector of L. major, in Different Habitats and Regions of Iran

Phlebotomus papatasi is an important vector of L. major in Iran. P. papatasi was collected from peridomestic animal shelters, inside and around the houses and also the nearby burrows of the gerbil reservoir hosts, Rhombomys opimus, in several provinces in Iran. Mitochondrial Cytochrome b (Cyt b) of sandflies, which is a maternally-inherited gene marker, was used to see if there is any "isolation by distance" over a large geographical scale among Iranian provinces. The analyses were based on the last 717 bp of the Cyt b gene followed by 20 bp of intergenic spacer and the transfer tRNA ser (TCN) gene, i.e. the 737 bp fragment (without primers) amplified with the primers CB1-SE and CB-R06. Cyt b Long fragment sequences were obtained from 149 out of 177 specimens of P. papatasi and 49 haplotypes were identified. Based on the Cyt b Long fragment examined, P. papatasi showed only recent divergence in Iran, because the genetic distances between haplotypes were small. However, some evidence for isolation by distance was found. First, all the haplotypes from Iran did not belong to a single network, whereas most from Golestan province (Iran) did belong to a single network. Second, there were some abundant haplotypes that were found only in one province.