Genetic diversity of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) in Sarawak, Malaysia and other regions of the world

This study inferred the genetic diversity and dispersal pattern of Aedes albopictus, for the first time from various populations in Sarawak, the largest Malaysian state situated in northwest Borneo Island. A set of sequences of 120 Ae. albopictus from Sarawak aligned as 633 characters of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) revealed 22 haplotypes (A1-A22), of which A1 was the most widespread haplotype. The overall haplotype and nucleotide diversities were 0.65014 and 0.00176, respectively, with no significant genetic differentiation and high gene flow (Nm = 1.07). The genetic distances among the populations ranged from 0 to 0.0227. In the global dataset, sequence alignment of Ae. albopictus from Sarawak and other regions of the world revealed 72 haplotypes. Based on uniquely shared haplotypes, Ae. albopictus in Sarawak has a close affinity with those from Southeast Asian and Oceania regions.