AFLP analysis of genetic variation of Hyphantria cunea (Drury) populations in Beijing and a nearby site

Hyphantria cunea (Drury) is a severe invasive pest in Beijing. It is important to understand the reason for its successful invasion and outbreak. Accordingly, this study was tailored to assess molecular variation and genetic relationships among three H. cunea populations in Beijing and one population from Sanhe in Hebei Province as control (totally 100 individuals). A silver-labeled amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) DNA profiling method was used to detect the genetic diversity and relationship among the populations. Five EcoRI and MseI primer combinations produced a total of 171 (91.2% polymorphic) informative fragments. The average Nei’s genetic diversity in four H. cunea populations analyzed by Popgene3.2 software was 0.2287, and the level of genetic diversity ranked in the order BDR (reared population in Daxing, Beijing) > BDN (natural population in Daxing, Beijing) > HSN (natural population in Sanhe, Hebei Province) > BFN (natural population in Fengtai, Beijing). The value of genetic differentiation among populations was 0.3321, and the gene flow was 1.0057. The genetic distance between these populations ranged from 0.0735 to 0.3309, 0.0531 on average. The result of UPGMA (unweighed pair group method with arithmetic averages) clustering showed that populations BFN and HSN were closely related, while BFN and BDN had the largest genetic distance. These results indicate that H. cunea populations in Beijing might originate from several areas.