Anopheles gambiae

Anopheles gambiae, refers to a complex of morphologically indistinguishable mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles, which contains the most important vectors of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the most efficient malaria vectors in the world. This species complex consists of :
 * Anopheles arabiensis
 * Anopheles bwambae
 * Anopheles merus
 * Anopheles melas
 * Anopheles quadriannulatus
 * Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto

Despite being morphologically indistinguishable, individual species of Anopheles gambiae complex exhibit different behavioural traits. For example, the Anopheles quadriannulatus, is generally considered to be zoophilic, (taking its blood meal from animals) whereas Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto is generally anthropophilic. Identification to the individual species level using the molecular methods of Scott et al. (1993) can have important implications in subsequent control measures.

A. gambiae s.str. has been discovered to be currently in a state of diverging into two different species — the Mopti (M) and Savannah (S) strains — though as of 2007, the two strains are still considered to be a single species. The A. gambiae s.str. genome has been sequenced, though there is controversy over the choice of strain used, which is considered a hybrid of two different strains. Currently, ~90 miRNA have been predicted in the literature (38 miRNA officially listed in miRBase) for A. gambiae s.str. based upon conserved sequences to miRNA found in Drosophila.