[Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Bemisia tabaci Genn. Spread in Syrian Coast]

This study aimed to detect genetic variations among the whitefly populations of Bemisia tabaci Genn which are spread on the Syrian coast in green houses and open fields up to 1200 meters above sea level, and to determine the biotypes of this insect and the possibility of finding morphological differences that can be relied upon to distinguish these biotypes of whitefly populations. 44 insect samples were collected from four regions: Tartous, Banias, Lattakia and Jableh, and grown separately on Eggplant for eight successive generations. 11 out of 18 specific primers for RAPD technique showed polymorphism with a 169 polymorphic fragments and polymorphism percentage reaching 86.39%. OPA-13 primer gave the highest number of amplified fragments with 29 bands and %93.1 polymorphism percentage, whilst the least number of amplified fragments was 4 bands with %50 polymorphism percentage gained by OPF-02 primer. The cluster analysis showed that the phylogenetic tree was divided into three classes (C1, C2, C3) depending on their environments with Shannon's index being 2.769, 2.771 and 2.483 respectively. The largest value of polymorphism percentage was %78.6 at population's collected of open fields C1, followed by %62.5 at population's collected from greenhouses C2, then %51.9 at population's from mountain environment C3 (400-1200m). The lowest values of genetic diversity indices was at population Bt-25 (PPB = 0.373, N0 = 2.683, NE = 1.161, I = 0.152, HE = 0.083), and the largest values was at Bt-42 (PPB = 0.485, N0 = 2.061, NE = 1.308, I = 0.220, HE = 0.147). The phylogenetic tree, resultant from nucleotides sequencing of cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene, showed the existence of four biotypes common at the Syrian Coast, nonB biotype at greenhouse, Q and B biotypes at Fields (400m), and M biotype at mountains (400- 1200m). Bootstrap value obtained by mtCOI technique was between 59-100%. Common biotypes in Syrian Coast were characterized morphologically, depending on some of morphometric parameters and morphology. There was insignificant difference between (MQ) or (BnonB) biotypes. whereas M biotype prevailed on B and nonB biotypes in most morphometric parameters. Margin Body was crenulated at local biotypes (M, Q, B nonB), and the same for Operculum visaform which was semicircular. Local biotypes w