Molecular footprint of Frankliniella occidentalis from India: a vector of Tospoviruses

Devkant Singha; Vishal Kumar V; Rajasree Chakraborty; Shantanu Kundu; Arunkumar Hosamani; Vikas Kumar; Kaomud Tyagi

doi:10.1080/23802359.2018.1536446

Molecular footprint of Frankliniella occidentalis from India: a vector of Tospoviruses

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2018 Nov 25;4(1):39-42. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2018.1536446. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Devkant Singha¹, Vishal Kumar V², Rajasree Chakraborty¹, Shantanu Kundu¹, Arunkumar Hosamani², Vikas Kumar¹, Kaomud Tyagi¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for DNA Taxonomy, Molecular Systematic Division, Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata, India.
² University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India.

Abstract

The western flower thrips, F. occidentalis is a vector of Tospoviruses and native to Western North America and Mexico. The present study is based on collected F. occidentalis specimens from Karnataka state in southern India and morphologically identified through available keys. The generated DNA barcode data show 99-100% similarity with the database sequences of F. occidentalis. The phylogenetic analysis (NJ, ML, and BA) shows three distinct clades of F. occidentalis in the present dataset with high bootstrap supports and posterior probabilities. The K2P genetic distances further depicted high similarity of the generated sequences from India and Netherlands. The Clade-1 (India + Netherlands) also shows a close relationship with Clade-2 (Kenya) rather than Clade-3 (Canada + USA). This study recorded the first genetic footprint of F. occidentalis in India and indicated the gene flow from the Netherlands to India. The similar molecular techniques may help to detect the invasion of many alien species in the near future and assists the quarantine regulations to protect the native ecosystem.

Keywords: DNA barcoding; Thrips; ecosystem; invasive pest; quarantine regulation.

Grants and funding

The study is financially supported by AICOPTAX project “Taxonomic Studies of Tubulifera (Thysanoptera) from India” to VK and core funding of Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change through its research programme to the corresponding author. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis or preparation of the manuscript.