Genetic analysis of brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål.) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) based on DNA markers

Abstract Brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål.) is one of the most ruinous pest of rice in south-east Asia. This insect had the tendency to express differential reaction to resistant rice cultivars and various insecticide groups in different geographic locations. Therefore, genetic diversity among the N. lugens populations is required to be understood for their effective management. Hence, in the present study, genetic structure and genetic diversity of 22 N. lugens populations collected from 22 hotspot regions of India were studied with genomic simple sequence repeats (NlSSR) markers. Results revealed that mean genetic diversity was 0.399 and polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.337 in the 30 selected SSR markers. Further, molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed only 2% variation among population and 98% within the populations. In cluster and population structure analysis, all the 22 population were sub-grouped into three groups. Interestingly, north and west Indian population showed high genetic similarity and assembled into one cluster in cluster analysis. The east and south Indian populations were evenly segregated into rest two clusters. Similarly, north and west Indian population again deemed to be occupied same compartment in Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). This variation might be associated with the N. lugens migration due to wind movement of south-west monsoon in two branches viz. Arabian sea branch and Bay of Bengal branch. Present study provides the molecular evidence of population genetics of N. lugens in India and the information could be useful to devise the efficient management strategy against this pest in different rice ecosystem.