Location: Tropical Pest Genetics and Molecular Biology Research Unit
Project Number: 2040-22430-028-005-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2022
End Date: Nov 30, 2023
Objective:
The expected outcomes of the agreement are to (1) develop diagnostic markers for species identification and tracking to source island for the mango fruit fly (B. frauenfeldi) based on a phylogenomic approach and (2) test the molecular markers for this complex. The milestones below only cover the contributions that will be performed by the team at the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC) at Hilo but they are aligned and synchronized with the milestones of the other project cooperators at University of Hawaii Manoa and USDA-APHIS.
Approach:
A de novo assembly will be generated for a representative sample within the frauenfeldi complex to serve as a reference to use for mapping whole genome sequencing reads from the specimen selected below. A set of about 40 specimens that adequately reflects the species complex and geographic variation will be used employing the methods that we have successfully developed for diagnosis markers of Anastrepha fraterculus complex based on whole genome data. This method consists in comparing the topology of the phylogenies inferred from independent loci alignments and a phylogeny constructed from all evaluated loci (species tree). It is expected that phylogenies of highly informative loci show the same or very similar clade formation as in the species tree. Also a subsampling strategy will be applied to determine the minimum number of loci needed for species and/or population identification.
