International Journal of Entomology Research

Authors
Yayo AM, Ado A, Habibu UA, Mohammed BR, Bello MI, Hemingway J

Abstract
Epsilon class glutathione s-transferases (GSTe) are found specifically in insects and are important in metabolism of insecticides. The position of GSTe genes cluster in the genome of An. gambiae has been located and evidence for involvement of individual GSTe genes in DDT resistance demonstrated. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method was employed using primers which were designed for amplification of the individual members of the Epsilon class An. gambiae GSTs to amplify the orthologous genes from An. arabiensis. The PCR products were cloned and sequenced. Eight Epsilon GSTe1 – GSTe8 genes were identified in this study. The deduced amino acid sequences shared between 91% - 98.7% similarity with the Epsilon GSTs identified in An. gambiae. The high percentage similarity at amino acid level, strongly suggests the inclusion of the An. arabiensis GST into the Epsilon class and the phylogenetic analysis revealed the common ancestry of the two species.