Bulletin of Entomological Research (2007) 97, 299-308

J.T. Margaritopoulos, B. Gotosopoulos, Z. Mamuris, P.J. Skouras, K.C. Voudouris, N. Bacandritsos, A.A. Fantinou and J.A. Tsitsipis (2007)
Genetic variation among Mediterranean populations of Sesamia nonagrioides (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) as revealed by RFLP mtDNA analysis
Bulletin of Entomological Research 97 (3), 299-308
Abstract: Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of two segments of mitochondrial DNA (COI and 16S rRNA) was used to examine genetic variation in Sesamia nonagrioides (Lefèbvre) populations from the Mediterranean basin. Four populations were collected from central and southern Greece, and five from northern latitudes: Greece, Italy, France and Spain. No variation was observed in COI, while 16S rRNA segment proved highly polymorphic and 28 different haplotypes were found. Lower intra-population polymorphism was found in the northern populations than in southern ones. Although no significant isolation by distance was found, the UPGMA tree based on Nei's raw number of nucleotide differences separated the populations into two major groups, i.e. one with the northern (40.6°N-43.4°N) and the other with the southern populations (37.3°N-39.2°N). Analysis of molecular variance revealed that most of the variation was between the two major groups (Φ_CT=0.559), and all pairwise comparisons between the northern and southern populations resulted in high and significant FST values (overall FST=0.604). The high F_ST values and the strong spatial genetic structure indicate that long-distance migration may be a rare event. The populations do not seem to have experienced a strong historical bottleneck. The occurrence of a few widespread haplotypes and the genetic similarity of the northern populations could be attributed to a historical expansion of certain haplotypes from the south towards to the northern borders of the species' distribution area.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): John T. Margaritopoulos, John A. Tsitsipis, Panagiotis J. Skouras, Argyro A. Fantinou

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Sesamia nonagrioides		France
	Sesamia nonagrioides		Greece
	Sesamia nonagrioides		Italy
	Sesamia nonagrioides		Spain (continental)