Morphological and Genetic Analysis of Four Color Morphs of Bean Leaf Beetle

Authors

Bamphitlhi Tiroesele, Botswana College of Agriculture
Steven R. Skoda, USDA-ARSFollow
Thomas Hunt, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Donald Lee, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Muhammad I. Ullah, University of SargodhaFollow
Jaime Molina-Ochoa, Universidad de ColimaFollow
John E. Foster, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

John E. Foster

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

Journal of Insect Science, (2018) 18(2): 39; 1–8

doi: 10.1093/jisesa/iey016

Comments

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America 2018. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US. This Open Access article contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/ open-government-licence/version/2/).

Abstract

Bean leaf beetle (BLB), Cerotoma trifurcata (Forster; Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), exhibits considerable color variation but little is known about the underlying genetic structure and gene flow among color phenotypes. Genetic and morphological variation among four color phenotypes—green with spots (G+S), green without spots (G-S), red with spots (R+S) and red without spots (R-S)—were analyzed using amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) and morphometrics, respectively. AFLP generated 175 markers that showed ≥80% polymorphism. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that genetic variation was greatest within phenotypes (82.6–84.0%); gene flow among the four phenotypes was relatively high (N_m = 3.82). The dendrogram and STRUCTURE analysis indicated some population divergence of G-S from the other phenotypes. Morphological parameters were similar among phenotypes except that R+S showed significant differences in weight and body-length. Canonical variables 1 and 2, based on average morphometric characters, accounted for 98% of the total variation; some divergence was indicated between G+S and R+S from each other and from the G-S/R-S BLB color morphs. The pattern of genetic variation indicated potential divergence of G-S and G+S from each other and from R-S and R+S. Although these results indicate that the four different color morphs are not genetically or reproductively isolated, there is some genetic differentiation/structure and morphological dissimilarity suggesting weak/incomplete isolation.