Journal
PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES
Volume 9, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003425
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [P50 AI074285, K01 AI079162, R01 AI101229]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Chagas disease is a vector-borne disease endemic in Latin America. Triatoma infestans, a common vector of this disease, has recently expanded its range into rapidly developing cities of Latin America. We aim to identify the environmental features that affect the colonization and dispersal of T. infestans in an urban environment. We amplified 13 commonly used microsatellites from 180 T. infestans samples collected from a sampled transect in the city of Arequipa, Peru, in 2007 and 2011. We assessed the clustering of subpopulations and the effect of distance, sampling year, and city block location on genetic distance among pairs of insects. Despite evidence of genetic similarity, the majority of city blocks are characterized by one dominant insect genotype, suggesting the existence of barriers to dispersal. Our analyses show that streets represent an important barrier to the colonization and dispersion of T. infestans in Arequipa. The genetic data describe a T. infestans infestation history characterized by persistent local dispersal and occasional long-distance migration events that partially parallels the history of urban development.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available