Introduction to Molecular Diagnostics of Insects

Abstract

Insects play an important role in biocenoses due to their abundance and wide (cosmopolitan) distribution. Many insects are crop pests. An effective pest control could be realized in case of proper species identification, which is usually managed by morphological analysis. Molecular methods allow to deep study of many issues of insect biology. In particular, traditional approach can not ordinary identify a species at all stages of their life cycle, whereas molecular methods can it. This review covers a wide range of issues related to the molecular genetic analysis of insects. In the first section we consider the methods of fixation and storage of insect specimens, as well as their impact on DNA quality. Further, we provide general information on population study design. Various schemes of DNA extraction, examples of both express techniques and more thorough protocols for DNA extraction and their purification are provided. In addition, methods of DNA isolation that allow to preserve a specimen integrity for further morphological studies are considered. The methods of DNA quality control are described in detail, that is important for PCR analysis. The last section provides various methods of PCR analysis, that we exemplify by studies aimed to elucidate both fundamental issues and practical problems.