IDENTIFICATION OF APHID SPECIES ISOLATED FROM TOMATO CROPS USING PHYLOGENETIC APPROACHES IN RIYADH AND HAFAR AL-BATIN, SAUDI ARABIA

Aphids are common agricultural pests found worldwide and cause significant economic losses to farmers, Although these pests are of economic importance, information on their genome is limited, We examined the sequence diversity of two genes, the mitochondrial gene, subunit 1 of cytochrome oxidase (COI) and the 16S rRNA-encoding sequence of aphids sourced from tomato farms from two geographical regions of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh and Hafar Al-Batin). Partial sequences of COI (from 12 aphid isolates) and 16S rRNA-encoding sequence (from five aphid isolates) were separately amplified using polymerase chain reaction and sequenced to reveal the genomic similarity among specimens of 92-99% and 95.7%, respectively. Our data did not indicate any differences between aphid isolates. These results demonstrate that the present species are deeply embedded in the Aphis genus and share a close relationship with other Aphis species, including Aphis gossypii as a putative sister taxon, These isolates cannot be categorized as belonging to two different groups with origins in Riyadh and Hafar Al-Batin.