Insect Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141 004
*E-mail: vikas_ento@pau.edu
Online published on 2 September, 2015.
Armyworm, Mythimna separata (Walker) is considered as serious pest of sorghum, millets, rice, maize and wheat in Asia and Australia. The genetic diversity of M. separata collected from four locations of Punjab viz. Amritsar (Attari), Jalandhar (Kartarpur), Gurdaspur and Bathinda districts was studied. The DNA barcode region (mtCOI) of samples of these was cloned and sequenced. Multiple alignment of all sequences revealed only one substitution of “T” instead of “C” at 364th position in Bathinda samples. The population from Amritsar, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur were genetically similar (100%) based on mtCO1 gene sequence. The phylogenetic tree showed the 0.2% variation in Bathinda collected samples. The results indicated that no significant mutations occurred. Four mtCOI gene sequences for M. separata (Australia-2, Japan-1, Korea-1) retrieved from GenBank database were compared with Indian population by developing phylogenetic tree which indicated that the armyworm from India, Australia, Japan and Korea are similar.
Armyworm, Mythimna separata, Punjab, genetic diversity, mtCO1, barcoding
