Molecular characterization of the endosymbiont Candidatus portiera aleyrodidarum collected from West Bengal

Abstract

Candidatus portiera aleyrodidarum is an obligate primary endosymbiont harboured by whitefly including the sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius). An experiment was performed by using 16SrDNA universal primers for characterization of C. portiera present within the whitefly population infesting Bhendi. Finally, a phylogenetic tree was constructed from the sequences acquired from commercial labs by comparing them with other isolates present in NCBI data bases. Results shown that Bengal isolates are more than 99% similar with the isolates of Pakistan and Punjab. This is the first report regarding the identification of C. protiera from Bengal. This study aims to contribute in the understanding of primary endosymbionts of whitefly, their host specificity and their diversity.