SSR markers based identification of genetic variability of spiraling whitefly, <em>Aleurodicus</em> <em>dispersus</em> populations in Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The spiraling whitefly, <em>Aleurodicus dispersus</em> Russell (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is a polyphagous and important pest of agricultural and horticultural crops in India. Despite its economic importance, little is known about the level and patterns of genetic variability in populations. In this study, we used the simple sequence repeats - polymerase chain reaction (SSR-PCR) technique to study the genetic diversity of spiraling whitefly populations from 18 districts of Tamil Nadu. About 54. 7% of alleles were polymorphic in <em>A. dispersus</em> populations from 18 districts. Our SSR study clearly detected moderate levels of polymorphism among the whitefly populations as multiple alleles were identified in many markers. The polymorphism information content (PIC) for SSR primers ranged from 0 to 1. Average genetic distances were estimated to investigate the level of DNA variation among 18 spiraling whitefly populations from 18 districts of Tamil Nadu. The highest average genetic distance (0.855) was found between populations from Tiruppur, Erode, Tiruchirappalli and Villupuram. An unweighted pair group method of arithematic-average (UPGMA) dendrogram constructed based on similarity coefficients for the 18 <em>A. </em><em>dispersus</em> populations from 18 districts of Tamil Nadu. The spiraling whitefly population from Pudukkottai was separated from those in the other 17 districts of Tamil Nadu.