Determination of biological parameters and DNA polymorphism through AFLP, among different cowpea beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.), (Coleoptera:Bruchidae) populations

Several biological parameters of cowpea beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.), populations collected from Aydın, Antalya and Isparta provinces are measured under choice and no-choice conditions. A total of nine different legume seeds including seven varieties/species of chickpea, a bean and a cowpea variety were employed for the study. Furthermore, AFLP technique was used for determination of polymorphism among the populations. The results showed that overall eggs laid was higher in Antalya population than the other two. In general, populations laid more eggs on cowpea, bean and CA2969 chickpea variety. Adult emergence ratios on cowpea seeds were found to be 84%, 80% and 73% for Aydın, Isparta and Antalya populations, respectively. With the exception of an individual, there were no adult emergence recorded for all populations on bean seeds. Chickpea variety CA2969 had adult emergence ratios changing between 45-63%. In choice tests, cowpea and bean were most preferred seeds for egg laying. While Aydın and Isparta populations originally collected from cowpea preferred bean and cowpea seeds equally (40-45%), Antalya population preferred cowpea over bean seeds for egg laying (54% and 27%). Although Antalya population have been reared on chickpea seeds around 36 generations, the most preferred chickpea variety ratio was under %13. Similar egg laying ratios on chickpea varieties (10-16%) were obtained for Aydın and Isparta populations. Although all three populations had adult emergence ratios of 80-90% on chickpea variety Yar, their egg laying preferences were 1-2% for the same variety. Furthermore, populations caused the highest weight loss on cowpea seeds.The results of the molecular study showed 83.6%, 72.5% and 56.5% polymorphism levels for Isparta, Aydın and Antalya populations, respectively. The Gst value was found to be 0.50, an indication of population differentiation. The genetic distance values and phylogenetic tree indicated that the populations collected from cowpea (Aydın and Isparta) were clustered together and geneticaly more distant to chickpea collected Antalya population.