DNA Barcode Analysis of Thrips (Thysanoptera) Diversity in Pakistan Reveals Cryptic Species Complexes.

ABSTRACT: Although thrips are globally important crop pests and vectors of viral disease, species identifications are difficult because of their small size and inconspicuous morphological differences. Sequence variation in the mitochondrial COI-5' (DNA barcode) region has proven effective for the identification of species in many groups of insect pests. We analyzed barcode sequence variation among 471 thrips from various plant hosts in north-central Pakistan. The Barcode Index Number (BIN) system assigned these sequences to 55 BINs, while the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery detected 56 partitions, a count that coincided with the number of monophyletic lineages recognized by Neighbor-Joining analysis and Bayesian inference. Congeneric species showed an average of 19% sequence divergence (range = 5.6%

SUBMITTER: Iftikhar R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4704811 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature