GENETIC DIVERSITY OF THREE POPULATIONS OF DUBAS BUGS OMMATISSUS LYBICUS DE BERGEVIN (TROPIDUCHIDUE: HOMOPTERA)

Dubas bug (Ommatissus lybicus De Bergevin) is a major pest for date palm in several countries and mainly in the Arabian Gulf The intensive use of insecticides to control the dubas bug might lead to induced resistance. To investigate the diversity of this insect, isolates were collected from three populations from Oman (Batinah and Daklia regions) and Jordan (Safi region), Total genomic DNA was successfully isolated from individual insects using in-house developed freeze-thaw protocoL The isolates were investigated for genetic diversity using an inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker. The data showed huge diversity within and between the assayed dubas bug populations. Moreover, the Cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene was amplified and sequenced for random isolates from all three populations. The sequences were used to generate a phylogenetic tree based on maximum likelihood method. The data confirms the genetic diversity within and between the assayed dubas bug populations. Nonetheless, a group of dubas bug isolates from Oman have clustered in two major clades, indicating their uniqueness among other assayed international isolates.