Study of Genetic Diversity of the Aphid Predator Hippodamia variegata (Goeze) in Different Areas of Syria Using SRAP markers

This study was conducted in 2020 at the Laboratory of Biotechnology, Agronomy Department and Research Center for Biological Control Studies, Faculty of Agriculture, Damascus University. This study aimed to determine the genetic diversity of the variegated ladybug aphid predator Hippodamia variegata (Goeze) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) collected from different regions in Syria using the SRAP technique (Sequence-related Amplified polymorphism). The number of amplified fragments was 101 bands, 99 of which were polymorphic with a polymorphism rate of 97.99%. The number of polymorphic fragments ranged between two bands by using the primers pair SRAP-12 and 13 bands by using the primers pair SRAP-1, with an average of 6.6 bands for each primers pair. The lowest polymorphism rate was 83.33% for primers pairs SRAP-4 and SRAP-9, whereas the highest polymorphism rate was 100% for the rest of the primers pairs. The results obtained on the degree of genetic diversity of the predator's individuals H. variegata showed that the highest value for percent disagreement values was 0.904 between samples from Damascus and Latakia (Fedio) and Homs and Latakia (Fedio), whereas the lowest value for percent disagreement values was 0.271 between samples from Damascus and Sweida. The phylogenetic tree showed that the studied populations were divided according to their geographical distribution into two main groups; the first group included samples collected from the regions of Damascus, Sweida, and Homs with a genetic distance of 15.51, whereas the second group included samples collected from the regions of Tartous, Jabla (Beit Yashout), and Lattakia (Fedio) with a genetic distance of 11.08. This is the first study to determine genetic diversity of H. variegata in Syria. Keywords: Genetic diversity, predator, Hippodamia variegata, SRAP, Syria