AN ANCHORED RESTRICTION-MAPPING APPROACH APPLIED TO THE GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF THE ANOPHELES-GAMBIAE MALARIA VECTOR COMPLEX-1

We introduce here a simple approach for rapidly determining restriction maps for a number of regions of a genome; this involves ''anchoring'' a map with a rare restriction site (in this case the seldom-cutting EagI) followed by partial digestion of a frequent-cutting enzyme (e.g., Sau3A). We applied this technology to five species of the Anapheles gambiae complex. In a single Southern blot we obtained about a 15-kb restriction map each for the mtDNA, rRNA gene, and a scnDNA region for each of five species. Phylogenetic analyses of these regions yield trees at odds with the more traditional chromosome inversion-based trees. The value of the approach for systematic purposes is the ease with which several large, independent regions of the genome can be quickly assayed for molecular variation.