Genotyping of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) affirmed a new record of Asia II 7, China 3 and dominance of Asia I cryptic species in Bihar, India

Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is a cryptic species complex that infests various plant species and act as a vector for many plant viruses all over the world. To understand the B. tabaci cryptic species diversity in Bihar more comprehensively, interhost and interlocation surveys were conducted during the year 2020-2021. The genetic variability among 29 populations (16 interhost and 13 interlocation) was explored using nuclear markers viz. Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) along with mitochondrial marker, mtCOI. The dissimilarity coefficients of 29 populations clustered in a dendrogram with RAPD and SSR primers showed that interlocation populations were less diverged than the interhost populations. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 657 bp mtCOI sequences identified the presence of four cryptic species viz. Asia I, Asia II 1, Asia II 7 and China 3 belonging to two genetic groups (Asia and China) with high variations in interhost unlike in interlocation. Among the four cryptic species, Asia I was the most prevalent in Bihar, establishing 86.20% of all the sequenced samples and Asia II 7 and China 3 were reported for the first time in Bihar region. We believe that the information generated in this study is important from the perspective of identifying cryptic species diversity and to develop long term pest management strategies.