Identification and Distribution of Haplotypes of Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Liviidae) in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Abstract

Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), also known as the Asian citrus psyllid, is a vector of the citrus huanglongbing (HLB) disease. D. citri transmits all three known strains of the HLB pathogen: Candidatus Liberibacter africanus, Candidatus Liberibacter americanus, and Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. The study involved 92 psyllids representing the Caribbean Basin and reference samples representing countries within Asia, North America, and South America. This study was aimed at characterizing D. citri on a molecular level in order to determine the haplotype diversity and uniqueness within Jamaica and the Caribbean Basin. D. citri-specific primers were used to amplify an 821 bp gene fragment from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (mtCOI). The statistical parsimony program, TCS, was used to determine the 12 haplotypes found within the Caribbean, with haplotypes H2 and H7 being the most prominent. The H2 haplotype was found to belong to the South Western Asia group originating from India. H2 represented 54% of the sequenced samples and dominated the Greater Antilles, 22% were grouped as H7, dominating the Lesser Antilles, while the remaining 24% of the sequences were grouped in the remaining 10 haplotypes and were variants seen within the Greater and Lesser Antilles.