Population Structure of the Greenhouse Whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood), an Invasive Species from the Americas, 60 Years after Invading China

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Rui-Rui Gao¹  Wen-Ping Zhang¹  Huai-Tong Wu³  Rui-Ming Zhang¹  Hong-Xu Zhou¹  Hui-Peng Pan³  You-Jun Zhang³  Judith K. Brown² 

[1] Key Lab of Integrated Crop Pest Management of Shandong Province, College of Agronomy and Plant Protection, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China; E-Mails:;School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; E-Mail:;Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; E-Mails:

关键词: biological invasion;    exotic introduction;    genetic differentiation;    genetic structure;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms150813514

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Though the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) was introduced into China more than 60 years ago, the genetic diversity and structure of this exotic insect pest and virus vector have not been studied. To investigate the population genetic characteristics of this invasive species and to identify potential invasion routes, the genetic diversity and population structure of 17 collections of T. vaporariorum from nine provinces in China were analyzed using seven microsatellite loci. The results of the analyses indicated that the genetic diversity for the populations examined from the four provinces: Jilin, Ningxia, Guizhou and Qinghai, was lower than the genetic diversity of populations from the five provinces: Yunnan, Shandong, Shanxi, Liaoning, and Gansu. The T. vaporariorum populations analyzed in this study grouped as two distinct genetic clusters based on the analysis using STRUCTURE, whereas, 8 clusters were identified based on the BAPS analysis. Of the 136 genetic distance (Fst) values, 128 (94%) were associated with a significant exact test. There was a significant relationship between Fst and geographical distance. These results demonstrate that populations of T. vaporariorum in China exhibit significant genetic differentiation, indicating the likelihood that multiple introductions of T. vaporariorum into China have occurred. Also, the populations collected from the provinces of Jilin, Ningxia, Guizhou and Qinghai appear to represent secondary introductions originating from other Chinese provinces.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.