engleski

Genetic monitoring of the western corn rootworm in southern Europe

The WCR is a highly invasive pest of maize. It was introduced to Europe in the early 1990s from the USA and now is a serious pest in Europe. Understanding its genetic variability and dispersal dynamics provides crucial information for its management. From 1996 till the present, intensive temporal and spatial sampling has been carried out in Croatia, Serbia, Hungary and Italy. This study aims to investigate the genetic structure, gene flow and dispersal of WCR populations from southern Europe (46 populations, 1327 specimens) using the Diabrotica core set of microsatellite markers. Individuals were subjected to standard population genetic analyses, with the resulting genotypic data analysed for: number of alleles, expected (HE) & observed (HO) heterozygosity, FIS & θ (FST) ; significant differentiation among populations for all loci & population pairs ; isolation by distance via a Mantel test among population pairs and evidence for recent bottlenecks. Results will show: (i) how the genetic variation found has influenced WCR invasion success in southern Europe ; (ii) failure of the eradication program in Italy ; (iii) the influence of integrated pest management on genetic variation and differentiation ; and (iv) ineffectiveness of quarantine measures in EU.

western corn rootworm; population genetics; monitoring

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