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CYTOCHROME B GENE AS A PHYLOGENETIC MARKER IN ESTIMATING MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF STINK BUGS (HEMIPTERA: PENTATOMIDAE) IN INDIA

Ramneet Kaur*, Devinder Singh

In the present study, a partial sequence of 440 bp of Cyt b gene were subjected to phylogenetic analysis to understand the intrageneric, interspecific and intraspecific variations in nine species of stink bugs of family Pentatomidae. The final aligned data pertained to 18 Cyt b sequences of 440 bp representing 10 species and 5 genera. Sequence of Aeschyntelus notatus, belonging to family Rhopalidae, was included in the analysis as the out-group taxon. The intraspecific divergence ranged from 0.2 to 7.2% whilst interspecific divergence ranged from 3.8 to 10.3% and intergeneric distance ranged from 12.1 to 20.2%The pairwise genetic distances were calculated and phylograms were constructed using Maximum Likelihood, Maximum Parsimony, and Neighbour-Joining methods. The database analysis showed hierarchical increase in percentage divergence across different taxonomic levels and revealed a clear pattern of increased nucleotide diversity from conspecific to congeneric to intra subfamily level using Cyt b gene fragment.