Naumenko, Anastasia N.Karagodin, Dmitriy A.Yurchenko, Andrey A.Moskaev, Anton V.Martin, Olga I.Baricheva, Elina M.Sharakhov, Igor V.Gordeev, Mikhail I.Sharakhova, Maria V.2020-03-022020-03-022020-02-05Naumenko, A.N.; Karagodin, D.A.; Yurchenko, A.A.; Moskaev, A.V.; Martin, O.I.; Baricheva, E.M.; Sharakhov, I.V.; Gordeev, M.I.; Sharakhova, M.V. Chromosome and Genome Divergence between the Cryptic Eurasian Malaria Vector-Species Anopheles messeae and Anopheles daciae. Genes 2020, 11, 165.http://hdl.handle.net/10919/97094Chromosomal inversions are important drivers of genome evolution. The Eurasian malaria vector <i>Anopheles</i> <i>messeae</i> has five polymorphic inversions. A cryptic species, <i>An. daciae</i>, has been discriminated from <i>An. messeae</i> based on five fixed nucleotide substitutions in the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA. However, the inversion polymorphism in <i>An. daciae</i> and the genome divergence between these species remain unexplored. In this study, we sequenced the ITS2 region and analyzed the inversion frequencies of 289 <i>Anopheles</i> larvae specimens collected from three locations in the Moscow region. Five individual genomes for each of the two species were sequenced. We determined that <i>An. messeae</i> and <i>An. daciae</i> differ from each other by the frequency of polymorphic inversions. Inversion X1 was fixed in <i>An. messeae</i> but polymorphic in <i>An. daciae</i> populations. The genome sequence comparison demonstrated genome-wide divergence between the species, especially pronounced on the inversion-rich X chromosome (mean Fst = 0.331). The frequency of polymorphic autosomal inversions was higher in <i>An. messeae</i> than in <i>An. daciae.</i> We conclude that the X chromosome inversions play an important role in the genomic differentiation between the species. Our study determined that <i>An. messeae</i> and <i>An. daciae</i> are closely related species with incomplete reproductive isolation.application/pdfenCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalmalaria mosquitoespolymorphic inversionsgenomeinternal transcribed spacer 2Chromosome and Genome Divergence between the Cryptic Eurasian Malaria Vector-Species Anopheles messeae and Anopheles daciaeArticle - Refereed2020-03-02Geneshttps://doi.org/10.3390/genes11020165