{"doi":"10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9","title":"Sibling species of the major malaria vector Anopheles gambiae display divergent preferences for aquatic breeding sites in southern Nigeria","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Background</jats:title>\n                <jats:p> When integrated with insecticide-treated bed nets, larval control of <jats:italic>Anopheles</jats:italic> mosquitoes could fast-track reductions in the incidence of human malaria. However, larval control interventions may deliver suboptimal outcomes where the preferred breeding places of mosquito vectors are not well known. This study investigated the breeding habitat choices of <jats:italic>Anopheles</jats:italic> mosquitoes in southern Nigeria. The objective was to identify priority sites for mosquito larval management in selected urban and periurban locations where malaria remains a public health burden. </jats:p>\n              </jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Mosquito larvae were collected in urban and periurban water bodies during the wet-dry season interface in Edo, Delta, and Anambra States.  Field-collected larvae were identified based on PCR gel-electrophoresis and amplicon sequencing, while the associations between <jats:italic>Anopheles</jats:italic> larvae and the properties and locations of water bodies were assessed using a range of statistical methods.</jats:p>\n              </jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Mosquito breeding sites were either man-made (72.09%) or natural (27.91%) and mostly drainages (48.84%) and puddles (25.58%). <jats:italic>Anopheles</jats:italic> larvae occurred in drainages, puddles, stream margins, and a concrete well, and were absent in drums, buckets, car tires, and a water-holding iron pan, all of which contained culicine larvae. Wild-caught <jats:italic>Anopheles</jats:italic> larvae comprised <jats:italic>Anopheles coluzzii</jats:italic> (80.51%)<jats:italic>, </jats:italic><jats:italic>Anopheles gambiae </jats:italic>sensu stricto<jats:italic> (s.s.)</jats:italic> (11.54%)<jats:italic>,</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Anopheles arabiensis</jats:italic> (7.95%); a species-specific PCR confirmed the absence of the invasive urban malaria vector <jats:italic>Anopheles stephensi</jats:italic> among field-collected larvae. <jats:italic>Anopheles arabiensis, An. coluzzii,</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>An. gambiae s.s</jats:italic>. displayed preferences for turbid, lowland, and partially sunlit water bodies, respectively. Furthermore, <jats:italic>An. arabiensis</jats:italic> preferred breeding sites located outside 500 m of households, whereas <jats:italic>An</jats:italic>. <jats:italic>gambiae s.s.</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>An</jats:italic>. <jats:italic>coluzzii</jats:italic> had increased detection odds in sites within 500 m of households. <jats:italic>Anopheles gambiae s.s.</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>An</jats:italic>. <jats:italic>coluzzii</jats:italic> were also more likely to be present in natural water bodies; meanwhile, 96.77% of <jats:italic>An. arabiensis</jats:italic> were in man-made water bodies. Intraspecific genetic variations were little in the dominant vector <jats:italic>An. coluzzii</jats:italic>, while breeding habitat choices of populations made no statistically significant contributions to these variations.</jats:p>\n              </jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Sibling malaria vectors in the <jats:italic>An. gambiae</jats:italic> complex display divergent preferences for aquatic breeding habitats in southern Nigeria. The findings are relevant for planning targeted larval control of <jats:italic>An. coluzzii</jats:italic> whose increasing evolutionary adaptations to urban ecologies are driving the proliferation of the mosquito, and <jats:italic>An. arabiensis</jats:italic> whose adults typically evade the effects of treated bed nets due to exophilic tendencies.</jats:p>\n              </jats:sec>","journal":"Malaria Journal","year":2024,"id":46229,"datarank":0.540792024663038,"base_score":2.5649493574615367,"endowment":2.5649493574615367,"self_citation_contribution":0.38474240361923057,"citation_network_contribution":0.15604962104380748,"self_endowment_contribution":0.38474240361923057,"citer_contribution":0.15604962104380748,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":13,"citers_with_citation_signal":6,"citers_with_endowment":6,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":214709,"name":"Irma Sanchez-Vargas","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214710,"name":"Clement Isaac","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214711,"name":"Brian D. 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Ebhodaghe","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":2.5649493574615367,"endowment":2.5649493574615367,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"38413961","pmcid":"PMC10900747","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4392190524","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Colorado State University","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":5.2174,"citation_percentile":0.95605664,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":5},{"year":2026,"count":5}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9","host_type":"GOLD"},{"url":"https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9/fulltext.html","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-024-04871-9","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38413961","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/10900747","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/f0955ebf8fd445cbb4dc8aaa2720c28e","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10900747/pdf/12936_2024_Article_4871.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10900747","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10900747?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Malaria Research and Control","Mosquito-borne diseases and control","Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms","Medicine","Environmental Science","Biology","Animals","Adult","Humans","Anopheles","Mosquito Vectors","Nigeria","Malaria","Water","Larva","Breeding"],"mesh_terms":["Mosquito Vectors","Adult","Animals","Anopheles","Breeding","Humans","Larva","Malaria","Nigeria","Water"],"keywords":["Anopheles gambiae","Anopheles","Biology","Larva","Vector (molecular biology)","Veterinary medicine","Malaria","Anopheles stephensi","Parasitology","Entomology","Dry season","Ecology","Zoology","breeding behavior","An. 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