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ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #363637
Research Project: Sustainable Management Strategies for Stored-Product Insects

Location: Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research

Title: Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) genetic diversity in North America and Europe

Author
item KAPANTAIDAKI, DESPOINA - Benaki Phytopathological Institute
item EVANGELOU, VASSILIKI - Benaki Phytopathological Institute
item Morrison, William - Rob
item Leskey, Tracy
item BRODEUR, JACQUES - University Of Montreal
item MILONAS, PANAGIOTIS - Benaki Phytopathological Institute

Submitted to: Insects
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/11/2019
Publication Date: 6/17/2019
Citation: Kapantaidaki, D.E., Evangelou, V.I., Morrison III, W.R., Leskey, T.C., Brodeur, J., Milonas, P. 2019. Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) genetic diversity in North America and Europe. Insects. 10(6):174. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10060174.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10060174

Interpretive Summary: The brown marmorated stink bug is native to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, but has recently become a damaging, globally invasive species to specialty and row crops, including in North America and Europe. The spread of this pest insect has triggered research using population genetics to determine the mechanism and pathways of the spread. This has most commonly been done using one or two specific mitochondrial genes. However, focusing so narrowly on just two genes may hamper meaningful conclusions about invasion pathways if the diversity of those genes is low and invasion is recent. In this study, we used both the most common mitochondrial gene, as well as a largely unexplored gene family to understand the genetic diversity of brown marmorated stink bug and whether invasion is still ongoing. Using individuals collected from Canada, North America, and Europe, we found much higher genetic diversity in North America than has been previously described, and confirmed the high diversity of stink bugs from Europe. These results are likely the result of ongoing invasion of North America and Europe by the brown marmorated stink bug after its initial introduction into these regions. The arrival of new haplotypes in an area may affect how damaging a species becomes, as well as the types of problems that are created.

Technical Abstract: The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a damaging invasive species in North America and Europe. Substantial work has been made on the genetic diversity and the invasion pathways of H. halys in some of the countries where it has been found, based on mitochondrial sequences. We used two molecular markers: the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) gene which is an ideal standardized molecular marker for distinguishing closely related species and, the ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 (ITS1) gene, since only a few sequences of H. halys exist to this point in global databases and it is largely unexplored. Among the 14 haplotypes retrieved based on mtCOI gene, two of them (H162 – H163) were detected for the first time. These two haplotypes were found in specimens from Canada, Italy and USA. Concerning ITS1 gene, 24 haplotypes were identified. Amongst them, 15 occurred in just one population. In Greece and the USA 14 and 12 haplotypes were found respectively, with 7 and 6 of them being unique for Greece and USA, respectively. In this study, results from the nuclear genes of H. halys indicates high genetic diversity of the invading populations in North America and Europe.