Structural organization of the mitochondrial DNA control in Aedes aegypti

RONDAN DUEÑAS, JUAN C; GARDENAL, CRISTINA N; ALBRIEU LLINÁS, GUILLERMO; PANZETTA DE DUTARI, GRACIELA M

Research Press National Research Council of Canada

Lugar: Canada; Año: 2006 vol. 49 p. 931 - 931

he complete A+T - rich region of Aedes aegypti mitochondrial DNA has been cloned and sequenced. In Argentinean populations of the species, a polymorphism in the length of the amplified fragment was observed. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the shortest and longest A+T - rich amplified fragments detected revealed the presence of 2 types of tandemly repeated blocks. The size variation observed in natural populations is mainly due to the presence of a variable number of a 181 bp tandem repeat unit, located toward the 12S rRNA gene end. The size of the longest A+T - rich region was of 2070 bp, representing the largest control sequence reported for any mosquito species. Few relevant short blocks of primary-sequence similarity conserved in the control region of mosquitoes and other insects were detected scattered throughout the whole region. Five putative stem-loop secondary structures were found, one of them flanked by conserved sequences described in other insects. Our results s