Analysis of the population genetic structure of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus in Fujian, China, revealed by microsatellite loci and mitochondrial COI sequences

Abstract

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Rhynchophorinae), which is one of the most serious pests of palm plants, was first found in China in the city of Wenchang (Hainan Province) in the 1990s and has now expanded to South China, including Fujian Province. In this paper, we provide a genetic characterization and determine the genetic relationships among geographic populations of RPW in Fujian using microsatellite loci and cytochrome oxidase subunit Ι (COI) sequences. The results indicate a low‐level microsatellite diversity of RPW. Four genetic clusters of RPW were found in Fujian. No correlation was detected between the genetic and geographical distances in the microsatellite data. The mitochondrial COI sequence analyses revealed a high level of diversity in the Fujian populations. Eleven haplotypes were detected, and these included eight haplotypes that were different from those found earlier in Mediterranean, Middle East, Japanese, and other populations. Significant genetic variations were observed mainly within populations, both with microsatellites and with COI sequences. Low gene flow among the populations was observed. Our results indicate that the nuclear allelic diversity was low compared with the microsatellite results from populations in Wardan and Oman, but the mitochondrial diversity was not reduced to a similar extent. The low level of the genetic structure of RPW is related to the limited flight capacity of RPW and human‐aided dispersal rather than to the geographic distance.

Strong population genetic structure of an invasive species, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), in southern China

“…The PCR was performed according to Wang et al. (). Amplifications were performed with an initial denaturation step of 3 min at 94°C; 40 cycles of 30 s at 94°C, 30 s at the primer‐specific annealing temperature, and 1 min at 72°C; and a final elongation step of 5 min at 72°C.…”

“…We used the admixture ancestry model (Hubisz, Falush, Stephens, & Pritchard, ) and the correlated allele frequency model. A series of simulations were run from K = 2 to 7 (from K = 2 to 12 when microsatellite data of Wang et al., were included) with 20 replicates for each K value. The most likely value of K was calculated according to Evanno, Regnaut, and Goudet () in STRUCTURE HARVESTER (Earl & vonHoldt, ).…”

The interaction between diet breadth, geography and gene flow in herbivorous insects

“…These values are low enough, compared with the typical divergence between species (Hebert et al 2003), that the populations of each of these insects are most likely con-specific. Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, by contrast, had the highest mtDNA pairwise distance (4.8%) and has since been revealed to comprise at least two species (Rugman-Jones et al 2013), though this is uncertain for the individuals genotyped in the study included in Table 6.1 (Wang et al 2015). The most important aspect of such a combined approach (highest pairwise F ST and mtDNA pairwise distance) is that it makes no judgement about the species status of the genetically distinct groups.…”

“…Grapholita molesta Wei et al (2015) 10.1111/mec.13300 None. Aleurocanthus spiniferus Wang et al (2015) 10.1016/j.gene.2015.01.050 None. Darwell et al (2014) Raymond et al (2013) 10.1111/mec.12483 Poor host records.…”

“…Ortego et al (2015) 10.1111/eva.12273 None. Wang et al (2015) 10.1111/eea.12282 None. Manni et al (2015) 10.3897/zookeys.540.6713 None.…”