Molecular distinction between populations of Gonatocerus morrilli, egg parasitoids of the glassy-winged sharpshooter from Texas and California: Do cryptic species exist?

Two molecular methods were utilized to distinguish geographic populations of Gonatocerus morrilli (Howard) from Texas and California and to test the possibility that this species could exist as a species-complex. Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat-Polymerase Chain Reactions (ISSR-PCR) were performed with a 5'-anchored ISSR primer. Twenty-five markers were generated with four populations (40 individuals) of G. morrilli. Twenty-three were polymorphic and the percentage of polymorphic loci was 92%. Most markers could be considered diagnostic since there was no band sharing between the Texas and California populations. Such differences typically are not found unless the populations are reproductively isolated. Exact tests for population differentiation indicated significant differences in marker frequencies among the populations. Comparison of other genetic differentiation estimates, which evaluate the degree of genetic subdivision, demonstrated excellent agreement between GST and theta values, 0.92 and 0.94, respectively, indicating that about 92 to 94% of the variance was distributed among populations. The average genetic divergence (D), as measured by genetic distance, was extremely high (Nei = 0.82 and Reynolds = 2.79). A dendrogram based on Nei's genetic distance separated the Texas and California populations into two clusters, respectively. Amplification of the Internal Transcribed Spacer-1 (ITS-1) region showed no size differences, whereas the ITS-2 DNA fragment varied in size between the two geographic populations. The ITS-2 fragment sizes were about 865 and 1099 base pairs for the California and Texas populations, respectively. The present study using the two molecular methods provides novel data critical to the glassy-winged sharpshooter/Pierce's disease biological control program in California.