Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of potato aphid species (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in Punjab, Pakistan

Potato aphids are the most destructive sucking insect pests of potato crops worldwide and cause financial losses to potato crops. Accurate identification is most famous for the implementation of an appropriate control strategy. DNA barcoding is the most accurate and reliable technique for the identification of aphid species. Therefore, an experiment was conducted based on DNA barcoding of aphid species. Aphid specimens were collected from different districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Cytochrome C Oxidase I (CO1) gene primers were used for the amplification of conserved sequence mtDNA of the collected specimens. The results revealed that one species of potato aphid identified as Macrosiphum euphorbiae with 97–99% good query coverage and 97–100% similarity with other potato aphid species present on the NCBI database and the other species identified as Myzus persicae with good query coverage from 95 to 100%. In contrast, the similarity index observed from 86 100% related to that of available on the NCBI database. The phylogenetic studies showed that M. euphorbiae shares the same cluster with M. euphorbiae isolate Shimla_A7, M. euphorbia isolate 10BBCHEM-0973, M. euphorbia, and M. euphorbia voucher. On the other hand, M. persicae shares the same cluster with M. persicae voucher APOM13 and M. persicae voucher APOL13. Aphids are becoming dangerous pests. Therefore, this study will help us to develop species-specific M. euphorbiae and M. persicae control measures.