genetic diversity of different populations of microcerotermes diversus (isoptera:termitidae) using coii gene

microcerotermes diversus (silvestri) (isoptera: termitidae), an important wood pest in ahwaz (khuzestan, iran), causes serious economic damage to cellulosic products in buildings. to investigate the genetic diversity of this pest, 13 populations from different areas of khuzestan province as well as two samples from khark island and bandar abbas were collected. following dna extraction a fragment of 486 bp length from the mithochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene subunit ii (coii) was amplified and subsequently sequenced. the maximum parsimony analyses were done through mega4. the characteristics of the most parsimonious tree were recorded as follows: tree,s length: 237, consistency index (ci): 0.7721, and retention index (ri): 0.8666. in this tree, 15 populations with an exception of two outgroups were placed into two clades. genetic difference among the populations was estimated as 0-0.117 using the kimura-2 parameter model that explains a low level of genetic diversity and shows the investigated populations not being far apart from each other.