Detection and characterization of new genotypes of Myzus antirrhinii (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in Japan, with evidence for their production of sexual morphs

Abstract

Two forms of Myzus persicae (Sulzer), F-15 and R306N′, resembling M. antirrhinii (Macchiati) in esterase profile have been found in Japan. To determine the genetic relationship of F-15 and R306N′ with M. antirrhinii, clonal lineages of F-15, R306N′ and those of 14 other forms of M. persicae collected in Japan were analysed for 17 polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci. Two microsatellite multi-locus (MS) genotypes of M. persicae and two MS genotypes, Ma3 and Ma4, of M. antirrhinii from Australia were used as references. The 16 Japanese forms were represented by different MS genotypes. F-15 and R306N′ had, respectively, 44.1% and 35.3% of their alleles at the 17 loci in common with Ma3 and Ma4, and some of the common alleles were peculiar in size. F-15 and R306N′ shared 22.6% and 29.6%, respectively, of their alleles with the other 16 MS genotypes of M. persicae. The corresponding values for Ma3 and Ma4 were both 27.4%. F-15 and R306N′ were grouped reliably with the two Australian MS genotypes of M. antirrhinii both by neighbour-joining method based on shared allele distance and by a Bayesian method with Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. These results suggest that F-15 and R306N′ are genetically closely related to M. antirrhinii and isolated from the gene pool of M. persicae despite their ability to produce sexual morphs. It is therefore proposed that F-15 and R306N′ should be classified as M. antirrhinii.