Abstract
Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most important insect pests in the world. In the present study, the taxonomic status of B. tabaci and the number of species composing the B. tabaci complex were determined based on 1059 COI sequences of B. tabaci and 509 COI sequences of 153 hemipteran species. The genetic divergence within B. tabaci was conspicuously higher (on average, 11.1%) than interspecific genetic divergence within the respective genera of the 153 species (on average, 6.5%). This result indicates that B. tabaci is composed of multiple species that may belong to different genera or subfamilies. A phylogenetic tree constructed based on 212 COI sequences without duplications revealed that the B. tabaci complex is composed of a total of 31 putative species, including a new species, JpL. However, genetic divergence within six species (Asia II 1, Asia II 7, Australia, Mediterranean, New World, and Sub Saharan Africa 1) was higher than 3.5%, which has been used as a threshold of species boundaries within the B. tabaci complex. These results suggest that it is necessary to increase the threshold for species boundaries up to 4% to distinguish the constituent species in the B. tabaci complex.
Highlights
The sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is one of the most important agricultural pests in the world [1,2,3]
Genetic Divergence at Three Taxonomic Levels In the B. tabaci dataset, genetic divergence was detected among the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences, ranging from 0% to 24.1% with an average of 11.1% (Table 1)
Dinsdale et al [9] reported that the genetic divergences among 198 COI sequences of B. tabaci and four sequences of B. atriplex, B. afer, and B. subdecipiens ranged from 0% to 34%; the range was subsequently separated into four groups: group 1, group 2, group 3, and group 4
Summary
The sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is one of the most important agricultural pests in the world [1,2,3]. This species attacks several host plants including ornamental and vegetable plants, grain legumes, and cotton by ingesting the phloem sap [4] and transmits begomoviruses (Geminiviridae) [5,6], inducing a large amount of economic damage [3]. B. tabaci is a complex of at least 24 morphologically indistinguishable species [3] These species have been mainly distinguished by molecular methods because of difficulties in detecting morphological and biological differences among the species [3,7,8]. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene is primarily used to define several species of the B. tabaci complex [9]
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