Genetic variation in wild Anopheles arabiensis Patton of Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kenya

Abstract

Electrophoretic variation was determined at eight enzyme loci in Anopheles arabiensis from four villages in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kenya. Seven loci had polymorphic alíeles of which at least two were common. Pooled allele frequencies at the Pgm, β-Had and Odh loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, while those at the Ao, Idh, Adh, Est-1 and 6-Pgd loci showed significant deviations. The frequency of heterozygotes at the Adh, Est-1 and 6-Pgd loci was less than expected, while at the Ao locus, there was an excess. A 2 × 4 contingency χ2-test for each of the loci not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium indicated an association between the respective gene frequencies and the villages. The suggested explanation for these observations is that each village constitutes a distinct population, and that the pooled data introduced the Wahlund effect. Allele frequencies at individual loci per village population are most likely at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Larger samples per village need to be examined to facilitate a goodness of fit χ2-test between observed and expected frequencies.