The malaria challenge : after one hundred years of malariology

In the field, the kdr mutation, involved in pyrethroid resistance, has been found widely distributed in the Savanna form of #Anopheles gambiae s.s., but never in wild populations of the Mopti form or #An. arabiensis, even in areas where both occur in sympatry with resistant Savanna populations. Under laboratory conditions, Mopti and Savanna forms were fully able to interbreed and the kdr mutation was sure in the field. The absence of the kdr mutation in the Mopti form and the total lack of Mopti-Savanna heterozygotes in field populations provides further evidence of a pre-copulatory barrier to gene flow between these two forms. Molecular markers, including kdr, are powerful tools for studying population genetics and circulation of resistance genes, and should be used through an integrated approach for a better understanding of the speciation process. (Résumé d'auteur