Cytogenetic characterization of the genome of mealybugPlanococcus citri(Homoptera, Coccoidea)

Abstract

Summary Mealybugs although being agriculturally harmful insects have been very poorly studied by modern cytogenetics techniques, and no cytotaxonomic criteria to distinguish between closely related species is available yet. In the mealybug Planococcus citri (2n=10) male and female individuals are both diploid, however in males, at the stage of blastula, the haploid chromosome set of paternal origin becomes heterochromatic, even though its complete inertia has been considered questionable. Here we present data on the cytogenetic characterization of the chromosomes of Planococcus citri. We report on (i) the fluorescence karyotype (D287/170), which to our knowledge is the first banded karyotype of a mealybug to be described; (ii) the chromosome localization of constitutive heterochromatin; (iii) the chromosome localization of rDNA sites; (iv) NORs activity. Our data also show, for the first time, that in the heterochromatic chromosome set ribosomal genes are still active.