The brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens is the most serious insect pests of rice, and is widely distributed in Asia, Pacific islands and Australia. Also this species is well known as a long-range migratory pest. To understand better the origins of these migrations, previous mitochondrial DNA studies revealed that there are significant genetic differences between populations north and south of the Red River Valley region in Vietnam. However, the mitochondrial DNA was not sufficiently variable to determine the sources of immigration. We therefore developed micorsatellite markers to enable a more detailed analysis of the geographic population structure of the brown planthopper. Microsatellite loci were isolated using a magnetic biotin method. Thirty-seven experimental primer pairs were designed from the microsatellite flanking regions of sequenced library clones. Seven of these pairs were useful in amplifying targetted microsatellite loci from individual specimens. Confirmed microsatellite loci were reamplified using fluorescently labeled primers to score variability across samples. We used variation in these loci to test hypotheses concerning the origin and nature of brown planthopper biotypes.
Species 1: Homoptera Delphacidae Nilaparvata lugens (brown planthopper)
Keywords: microsatellite loci
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