Türkiye’de İstalacı bir tür olan Nysius cymoides (Spinola, 1837) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)’in Moleküler Tanımlaması

Abstract

The false chinch bug, Nysius cymoides (Spinola, 1837) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), is an important pest with a wide host range. It was first discovered in Italy but now causing agricultural damage worldwide, including Turkey. Specimens of Nysius cymoides were collected from surveys of the sunflower and corn fields in Malkara-Keşan province, in Edirne in July 2020. Because of the population increase of the pest and their damages to sunflowers and corn fields, the pest identification have become an important issue. We investigated molecular characterization and identification of the pest by using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) barcode region. Adult and late immature stage of the specimens were examined under a stereozoom microscope and morphologically identified as well. The partial COI gene (659 bp) was amplified by using LCO1490/ HCO 2198 and PCR products were sequenced directly for molecular characterization. The sequence was registered GenBank database with accession number OL989232. Molecular analyzes were performed using MEGA X software. As a result, the nucleotide frequencies were A = 33.81%, T/U = 35.79%, C = 16.03%, and G = 14.37%. The distance-based species limitation method applied by using ASAP and ABGD, identified 5 species in the partition with the lowest ASAP score (1.5). The barcode gap distance of this partition with the best ASAP score was determined as 1.7%. The threshold distance was determined as 1.62%. The highest nucleotide identity of the studied specimen (OL989232) was detected as 99.8% with the specimen of Nysius cymoides from France (KJ541649.1) in GenBank. The objective of this study was the first attempt to identify Nysius cymoides specimens collected in Edirne based on DNA barcode regions.