Resolving Genetic Variation Among Populations of the Melon Fly, Bactrocera cucubitae, Using DNA Markers

Abstract

DNA barcoding is a relatively new technique employed by researchers to identify and classify species based on short segments of DNA in the mitochondrial genome. Although the idea of DNA barcoding has many potential benefits, it is not clear if it can be used to differentiate between morphologically similar cryptic species such as those found in many insect orders, including those in the family of true fruit flies known as the Tephritidae. To compare closely related populations or species using DNA barcodes, sequence relationships can first be determined by looking for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In addition, the GenBank database from NCBI can be searched using tools such as BLAST and ORF Finder to make comparisons of sequence information for different species.