Molecular identification of invasive drosophilid Zaprionus tuberculatus Malloch (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in Çanakkale, Turkey

Abstract

The vinegar or pomace fly, Zaprionus tuberculatus Malloch, is native to the Afrotropical region but has recently colonizednew areas in Turkey, Italy, Malta, Romania, and Greece. This invasive species was first detected in 2012 in Adana on banana and peachbaits and is considered a potential agricultural pest in fig production in Turkey. However, the European and Mediterranean PlantOrganization reports that no direct association of the fly with fruit damage has been documented so far because specimens weregenerally caught in traps. Specimens of Zaprionus sp. were monitored during surveys for cases of Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura)and Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) damaging experimental pomegranate and fig fields in Çanakkale, where we performed the fieldstudy. To better understand the species identification, a partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene regionwas used in this study. The barcode primer pairs were used to amplify the partial COI gene. PCR products were visualized and thendirectly sequenced. No insertion or deletion was observed in the 637-bp COI gene region. The average nucleotide frequencies of T, A,C, and G were observed as 39.1%, 29.6%, 15.2%, and 16.1%, respectively. Intraspecific pairwise divergence was low at 0.15%. Nucleotidesequences indicated that there were 2 substitutions, an A→G at 343 and a C→T at 592 positions, respectively. In conclusion, this studypresents the first molecular evidence and presence of Z. tuberculatus in Çanakkale, Turkey, which can help in resolving morphologicambiguities.