DNA Barcoding of Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) Associated with Selected Vegetable crops of South India

Abstract

Abstract Thrips is a very small insect pest that causes severe economic damage to important crops all over the world. Owing to their morphological complexities, they are often difficult to identify. A molecular tool was developed for easy identification of different species of the same organism using DNA barcoding by utilizing the sequence variation in the mitochondrial COI gene region. We studied barcode sequence variation among five thrips species, T.palmi, T.florum, T.hawaiiensis, Ayyariachaetophora, and Scirtothrips dorsalis in Kerala state, India. Neighbor-Joining analysis revealed the highest similarity sequences between Thripsflorum and Thripshawaiiensis. Data regarding specimens was deposited into the BOLD database. Unique IDs and barcodes were generated. The percentage of genetic distance computed within T. florum was upto 0.005%. The distance between T. florum and T. hawaiiensis was 0.003–0.005%. The distance between A. chaetophora and T. palmi was 0.259 to 0.267%. Phylogeny analysis has distinctly laid out the fact that the two species T. hawaiienesis and T. florum are closely related species. These unique barcodes designed for each thrips species could be used as a tool for their identification.