Detection by RAPD-PCR of polymorphism in populations of Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) collected on four host plants from Iran.

The sweetpotato whitefly, Bernisia tabaci (Genn.) (Hom: Aleyrodidae) is a major pest of field crops, vegetables and ornamentals in Iran. In this study, the infested leaves of cucumber (Cucurnis sativus L.) zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.) eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) with whitefly nymphs and pupae were collected from Iran, and were transferred to the laboratory. The newly emerged males and females of each population were released separately into a large cage set on cotton plants. Experiments were carried out in a growth chamber on cotton, (Varamin 76 variety) at 24+/-20C, 55+/-3% RH and 16:8 h (L:D) photoperiod. The adults of every collected population after emergency were reared in the large cages (40x50x70) containing pots of cotton plants. In this study five decamer primers were used in the amplification reactions. All the primers produced polymorphisms. Totally, 71 RAPD markers were found. The amplified DNA fragments were 200 to 3000 bp. The Jaccards and Nies similarity coefficient and Euclidian distances were used to generate a dendrogram based on unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA). The clusters based on RAPD markers correlate fairly well with classification scheme based on biological traits. This study suggested that RAPD can be useful technique to study DNA polymorphism in Bemisia tabaci.