The Anopheles gambiae complex consists of multiple morphologically indistinguishable mosquito species including the most important vectors of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in sub-Saharan Africa. Several lineages have only recently been described as distinct, including the cryptic taxon GOUNDRY in central Burkina Faso. The ecological, immunological, and reproductive differences among these taxa will critically impact population responses to disease control strategies and environmental changes. Here we examine whole-genome sequencing data from a longitudinal study of putative A. coluzzii in western Burkina Faso. Surprisingly, many samples are genetically divergent from A. coluzzii and all other Anopheles species and represent a new taxon, here designated Anopheles TENGRELA (AT). Population genetic analysis suggests that GOUNDRY sensu stricto represents an admixed population descended from both A. coluzzii and AT. AT harbors low nucleotide diversity except for the 2La inversion polymorphism which is maintained by overdominance. It shows numerous fixed differences with A. coluzzii concentrated in several regions reflecting selective sweeps, but the two taxa are identical at standard diagnostic loci used for taxon identification and thus AT may often go unnoticed. We present an amplicon-based genotyping assay for identifying AT which could be usefully applied to numerous existing samples. Misidentified cryptic taxa could seriously confound ongoing studies of Anopheles ecology and evolution in western Africa, including phenotypic and genotypic surveys of insecticide resistance. Reproductive barriers between cryptic species may also complicate novel vector control efforts, for example gene drives, and hinder predictions about evolutionary dynamics of Anopheles and Plasmodium.

中文翻译：

---

在传播疟疾的冈比亚按蚊中发现一种新的隐性蚊虫分类群的种群基因组学

冈比亚按蚊群由多种形态上无法区分的蚊种组成，包括撒哈拉以南非洲疟原虫恶性疟原虫的最重要媒介。直到最近才描述了几种不同的血统，包括布基纳法索中部的神秘分类群GOUNDRY。这些类群之间的生态，免疫和生殖差异将严重影响人口对疾病控制策略和环境变化的反应。在这里，我们检查了来自西布基纳法索推定的拟南芥的纵向研究的全基因组测序数据。出乎意料的是，许多样品在遗传上均不同于嗜酸气荚虫和所有其他按蚊物种，并且代表了一个新的分类群，在这里被命名为按蚊TENGRELA（AT）。种群遗传学分析表明，GOUNDRY sensu stricto代表了由拟南芥和AT组成的混合种群。AT具有低核苷酸多样性，除了2La倒位多态性（由过高优势维持）外。它显示了许多集中固定的差异，其中风铃草集中在几个区域，反映了选择性扫描，但是在用于分类群识别的标准诊断基因座上，两个分类群是相同的，因此，AT通常可能不会被注意到。我们提出了一种基于扩增子的基因分型分析法，用于鉴定可有效应用于许多现有样品的AT。错误识别的隐性分类群可能会严重混淆正在进行的西非按蚊生态学和进化研究，包括对杀虫剂抗性的表型和基因型调查。