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Population genetic structure of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae), from China and Southeast Asia

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Abstract

The melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett, is a species of fruit flies of significant agricultural interest. Of supposed Indian origin, the melon fly is now widely distributed throughout South East Asia up to China, while it has been recently eradicated from Japan. The population structure of seven geographic populations from coastal China, as well as samples from other regions of South East Asia and Japan, including lab colonies, have been studied using a 782 bp fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequence. The observed genetic diversity was exceedingly low, considering the geographic scale of the sampling, and one single haplotype was found to be predominant from Sri Lanka to China. We confirm that Bactrocera cucurbitae exists in South East Asia as a single phyletic lineage, that Chinese populations are genetically uniform, and that no apparent genetic differentiation exists between these and three available Japanese melon fly sequences.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Xiao-fei Liu (Yunnan University), Zhi-wen Zou (Jiangxi agricultural University), J. Catindig (International Rice Research Institute), Zhi-hong Xu (Zhejiang University), Xin Qi (National Chung Hsing University), Zheng-qiang Peng (Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences), Chang-ming Liu (Fujian Agriculture and Forestry Univeresity), Areepan Upanisakorn (Department of Agricultural Extension) for collecting samples for the study. We wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. This research was funded by the National Grand Fundamental Research “973” Program of China (Grant 2002CB111405), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 30471162) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant 05003324). F.N. was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab for Biocontrol/Institute of Entomology, Sun Yat-Sen University, 135 Xingangxi Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510275, P.R. China

    Jian Hu, Jun L. Zhang & Run J. Zhang

  2. Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, Siena, 53100, Italy

    Francesco Nardi

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  1. Jian Hu
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  2. Jun L. Zhang
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  3. Francesco Nardi
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  4. Run J. Zhang
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Correspondence to Run J. Zhang.

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Hu, J., Zhang, J.L., Nardi, F. et al. Population genetic structure of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae), from China and Southeast Asia. Genetica 134, 319–324 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-007-9239-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-007-9239-1

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