摘要
Here we use amplified fragment length polymorphism （AFLP） to assess genetic differentiation of Helicoverpa armigera and H. assulta. The results indicated that both species-specific fingerprints and cluster analysis showed the ability of AFLP technique to discriminate the two sibling species; among a total 1963 AFLP markers amplified from nine primer combinations： 777 （39.6%） were H. armigera-specific, 602 （30.7%） were H. assulta- specific, and 584 （29.7%） were common bands. The mean number ofH. armigera-specific bands was significantly more than that of H. assulta-specific bands for nine primer combinations （P 〈 0.05）; the intraspecific distance of H. armigera and H. assulta was 0.123 0 and 0.110 7 respectively, and the interspecific distance was 0.178 3. In addition, the percentage of polymorphic loci and estimated average heterozygosity were used to estimate genetic diversity of the two species. This study therefore demonstrates that AFLP analysis is a sensitive and reliable technique to study genetic differentiation and genetic relationships between species and provides sufficient molecular markers for future linkage map conslruction, location and eventual cloning of genes involved in traits differentiation.
Here we use amplified fragment length polymorphism （AFLP） to assess genetic differentiation of Helicoverpa armigera and H. assulta. The results indicated that both species-specific fingerprints and cluster analysis showed the ability of AFLP technique to discriminate the two sibling species; among a total 1963 AFLP markers amplified from nine primer combinations： 777 （39.6%） were H. armigera-specific, 602 （30.7%） were H. assulta- specific, and 584 （29.7%） were common bands. The mean number ofH. armigera-specific bands was significantly more than that of H. assulta-specific bands for nine primer combinations （P 〈 0.05）; the intraspecific distance of H. armigera and H. assulta was 0.123 0 and 0.110 7 respectively, and the interspecific distance was 0.178 3. In addition, the percentage of polymorphic loci and estimated average heterozygosity were used to estimate genetic diversity of the two species. This study therefore demonstrates that AFLP analysis is a sensitive and reliable technique to study genetic differentiation and genetic relationships between species and provides sufficient molecular markers for future linkage map conslruction, location and eventual cloning of genes involved in traits differentiation.
基金
We thank Si-Ping Li for technical contributions to this study, Dr Shi-Liang Zhou （Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences）, Jian-Cheng Shen and Qing-Bo Tang for data processing, and Li Feng for help in rearing insects. We are particularly grateful to Dr De-Xing Zhang for his constructive comments that greatly improved the manuscript. Also we appreciate thoughtful discussions with Professor Li-Huang Zhu （Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences）. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Grant Nos. 30330100 and 30471148）.
