Genome-wide analyses of the Bemisia tabaci species complex reveal contrasting patterns of admixture and complex demographic histories.

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journal.pone.0190555.pdf (6.37 MB)

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OA Location

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0190555

Author(s)

Elfekih, S

Etter, P

Tay, WT

Fumagalli, M

Gordon, K

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Type

Journal Article

Abstract

Once considered a single species, the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, is a complex of numerous morphologically indistinguishable species. Within the last three decades, two of its members (MED and MEAM1) have become some of the world's most damaging agricultural pests invading countries across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas and affecting a vast range of agriculturally important food and fiber crops through both feeding-related damage and the transmission of numerous plant viruses. For some time now, researchers have relied on a single mitochondrial gene and/or a handful of nuclear markers to study this species complex. Here, we move beyond this by using 38,041 genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, and show that the two invasive members of the complex are closely related species with signatures of introgression with a third species (IO). Gene flow patterns were traced between contemporary invasive populations within MED and MEAM1 species and these were best explained by recent international trade. These findings have profound implications for delineating the B. tabaci species status and will impact quarantine measures and future management strategies of this global pest.

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Date Issued

2018-01-24

Date Acceptance

2017-12-16

Citation

PLoS ONE, 2018, 13 (1)

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/56714

DOI

https://www.dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190555

ISSN

1932-6203

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Journal / Book Title

PLoS ONE

Volume

13

Issue

1

Copyright Statement

© 2018 Elfekih et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

License URL

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sponsor

Human Frontier Science Program

Identifier

PII: PONE-D-17-21330

Grant Number

LT000320/2014-L/6

Subjects

MD Multidisciplinary

General Science & Technology

Publication Status

Published

Article Number

e0190555