ABO blood groups of residents and the ABO host choice of malaria vectors in southern Iran

• ABO blood group of residents in two malaria endemic areas in southern Iran has been typed.
• Ingested blood meal of Anopheline mosquitoes were typed using allele-specific PCR.
• O blood group was the most frequently observed group in the regions.
• It is the first ABO molecular typing of blood meal in mosquitoes.
• ABO typing of arthropod vectors warrant further researches.

Recent epidemiological evidences revealed the higher prevalence of ‘O’ blood group in the residents of malaria-endemic areas. Also some data indicated preference of mosquitoes to ‘O’ group. The aim of this study was to determine ABO group ratio in the residents as well as ABO group preference of Anopheles in two malaria endemic areas in south of Iran. Agglutination method was used for ABO typing of residents. Field blood fed Anopheles specimens were tested against vertebrate DNA using mtDNA-cytB PCR–RFLP and then the human fed specimens were tested for ABO groups using multiplex allele-specific PCR. A total of 409 human blood samples were identified, of which 150(36.7%) were ‘O’ group followed by 113(27.6%), 109(26.7%), and 37(9.0%) of A, B, and AB groups respectively. Analyzing of 95 blood fed mosquitoes revealed that only four Anopheles stephensi had fed human blood with A(1), B(1), and AB(2) groups. Result of this study revealed high prevalence of O group in south of Iran. To our knowledge, it is the first ABO molecular typing of blood meal in mosquitoes; however, due to low number of human blood fed specimens, ABO host choice of the mosquitoes remains unknown. This study revealed that ABO blood preference of malaria vectors and other arthropod vectors deserves future research.

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