Abstracto

Molecular Phylogeny and Sequence Divergence in Stink Bugs of family Pentatomidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) inferred from analysis of Mitochondrial Cyt B Gene in India

Ramneet Kaur*, Devinder Singh

The present work was aimed to investigate the phylogenetic analysis of different species of Indian stink bugs belonging to family Pentatomidae based on mitochondrial Cyt b DNA sequences. We sequenced and analysed a 440 bp fragment of the mitochondrial Cyt b gene to assess the level of sequence divergence in different species of Pentatomid bugs collected from distant localities of Northern India. The data divulged an R value of 1.19 suggesting transitions to be more than transversions. 18 sequences representing 10 species and 5 genera were finally analysed using partial Cyt b gene region. The intraspecific divergence ranged from 0.2 to 7.2% with an average of 3.75 ± 3.0% whilst interspecific divergence ranged from 3.8 to 10.3% with an average of 7.49 ± 1.7% and intergeneric distance ranged from 12.1 to 20.2% with an average of 16.37 ± 2.2%. The percentage divergence values revealed a clear pattern of increased nucleotide diversity from conspecific to congeneric to intra subfamily level using Cyt b gene fragment.