Identification of Neotropical Mosquitoes by MALDI-TOF MS Profiling.

The mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) fauna of French Guiana encompasses 242 species, of which nearly half of them belong to the genus . Whereas several species of are important vectors of arboviruses, only a limited number of studies focus on them due to the difficulties to morphologically identify field-caught females. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been reported as a promising method for the identification of mosquitoes. females collected in French Guiana were morphologically identified and dissected. Abdomens were used for molecular identification using the (cytochrome oxidase 1) gene. Legs and thorax of 169 specimens belonging to 13 species, (i.e., , , , , , , , , , , , and ) were then submitted to MALDI-TOF MS analysis. A high intra-species reproducibility and inter-species specificity of MS spectra for each mosquito body part tested were obtained. A corroboration of the specimen identification was revealed between MALDI-TOF MS, morphological and molecular results. MALDI-TOF MS protein profiling proves to be a suitable tool for identification of neotropical species and will permit the enhancement of knowledge on this highly diverse genus.