Microsatellite Markers for Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and Their Potential use in Whiteflies

Abstract The citrus (or orange) spiny whitefly, Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Quaintance) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is an important pest of various economic crops such as citrus and tea, causing severe economic losses. However, the population genetics of A. spiniferus is poorly understood, both in China and in other countries. To improve our knowledge of the population structure and genetic variation of this species, 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci for A. spiniferus were developed and characterized using FIASCO (Fast Isolation by AFLP of Sequences Containing Repeats). Our results showed that the polymorphic information contents (PIC) of all 10 loci were greater than 0.5, showing a high degree of polymorphism. The number of alleles ranged from 12 to 27 across 60 individuals from 6 populations. In addition, the expected heterozygosity (HE) and the observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranged from 0.851 to 0.958 and from 0.621 to 0.850, respectively. Interestingly, all loci deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium...