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Invasive flower thrips, Thrips parvispinus (Karny) occurrence, host expansion and genetic diversification in a tropical poly-crop ecosystem

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Abstract

Background

Invasive black flower thrips Thrips parvispinus (Karny) has recently emerged as a significant threat to Indian chilli production. Identifying T. parvispinus became difficult due to the complex presence of thrips species in Indian chilli and allied ecosystems. Pest management success depends on assessing invasive pests genetic populations and their distribution in newly habituated areas.

Methods and results

The current study investigated the genetic diversity and phylogeographic structure of T. parvispinus across major chilli-growing zones representing different agro-climatic conditions in Tamil Nadu. The species-specific chaetotaxy characteristics of T. parvispinus and molecular analysis of the mtCOI gene were used to confirm that the species T. parvispinus has expanded rapidly in three regions (North Western, Western and Cauvery delta), sparsely in one (Southern) and absent from two (hilly and high rainfall). Fifteen allied crops in chilli/capsicum growing tracts served as host plants for T. parvispinus. A shrub species, namely Littleleaf boxwood, Buxus microphylla Siebold & Zucc., is described as a host plant for the first time. On capsicum and chilli, T. parvispinus and Scirtothrips dorsalis coexisted. Thrips palmi, T. tabaci, Frankliniella schultzei, and Microcephalothrips abdominalis co-occurring alongside T. parvispinus on allied crops.

Conclusion

Molecular characterization and haplotype identification help define the genetic composition of T. parvispinus and serve as a foundation for efficient monitoring and creation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. As a result, the genetic data presented in this work strongly argues that T. parvispinus as a population is resolving itself towards a fixed state through natural selection that spans its native range globally along with low genetic diversity [Hd: 0.771].

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Data availability

The sequence data produced from this study were deposited on the NCBI website. Other sequence data were retrieved from NCBI. The accession numbers of deposited and retrieved sequences were mentioned in the manuscript. The sequence data were deposited to the iBOLD database to obtain the BIN number, which was mentioned in the manuscript.

Abbreviations

mtCOI:

Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene

Dnasp:

DNA sequence polymorphism software

PoPART:

Population analysis with reticulate trees

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

NCBI:

National Center for Biotechnology Information

BLASTn:

Basic local alignment search tool

MEGA:

Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis

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Acknowledgements

The authors duly acknowledge the Department of Agricultural Entomology, TNAU, Coimbatore, for providing financial and physical assistance in specimen collections and sharing materials while analyzing insect samples in the laboratory. The authors gratefully acknowledge the critical review and suggestions given by the anonymous reviewers.

Funding

The doctoral study fellowship provided to A.P. under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Scholarship (DST/INSPIRE Fellowship/2019/IF190857) for the Higher Education Program (SHE) of the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Entomology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641003, India

    Aishwarya Palanisamy, Murugan Marimuthu & Chitra Narayanasamy

  2. Controller of Examinations, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641003, India

    Balasubramani Venkatasamy

  3. Department of Plant Pathology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641003, India

    Karthikeyan Gandhi

  4. Department of Vegetables, Horticultural College & Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641003, India

    Pugalendhi Lakshmanan

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  1. Aishwarya Palanisamy
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  3. Chitra Narayanasamy
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Contributions

MM designed the principal research aims, supervised all the processes, and evaluated the manuscript. AP collected and analyzed the insect sample, performed the experimental methods, analyzed the results, and wrote the manuscript. BV, CN, and KG have helped with technical advice during research. PL contributed to samples from field collection. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Murugan Marimuthu.

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Palanisamy, A., Marimuthu, M., Narayanasamy, C. et al. Invasive flower thrips, Thrips parvispinus (Karny) occurrence, host expansion and genetic diversification in a tropical poly-crop ecosystem. Mol Biol Rep 50, 9909–9923 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-08831-5

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