There are some molecular targets to identify vertebrate hosts from arthropod blood meals including the Cyt b gene and the COI gene. Which are the standards or characteristic that i have to bear in mind to choose a molecular target to identify host blood from mosquitoes? I would appreciate your help.
Cyto b genes are more prominent have many diversifying lines of development during long evolution. They may have consensus and conserved sequences. Take out blood meal portion, take out DNA, sequence it for mt DNA and genomic DNA both, find open clusters inn them and compare with the DNA of vertebrate hosts if available.
Dear Carolina! please check our paper (http://www.malariajournal.com/content/12/1/109) and references therein. Good luck!
Mitochondrial genes should be targeted because you can get clean sequence data due the fact that only one allele is present rather than two. Within the mitochondrial genome, you should select a gene which has been widely sequenced for most vertebrate species you are likely to detect in your region, other wise you will have many unknown identities among your bloodmeals. Really, there are just two choices that match these criteria: cytochrome oxidase I (CO I) gene, which has been used by the Database of Life project; and cytochrome b, for which sequences are widely available (i.e. for many vertebrate species) in GenBank. If you get a negative result for one, you can try the other. Primer sequences are widely available in the literature.
Yes, but be prepared for numerous failed matches. Given the high biodiversity in Colombia, there are probably numerous local bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species not yet represented in GenBank for the indicated gene targets. You might also consider trying to generate these data as part of your project.
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