Data from: Population genetic structure and intraspecific genetic distance of Periplaneta americana (Blattodea: Blattidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers

The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is a globally invasive pest
that can cause significant economic loss and threaten human health.
Although it is abundant and lives in close proximity to humans, few
studies have investigated the genetic diversity of P. americana. Our study
analyzed 1053 P. americana and other Periplaneta species’ samples from
different locations in China and the USA. A traditional tree-based method
using 17 unique mitochondrial COI haplotypes of P. americana and 20
haplotypes of the other Periplaneta species accurately identified P.
americana with a barcoding threshold of 5.1%. To identify the population
genetic structure of P. americana, we investigated wingless gene and
pooled them with obtained mtDNA data for a combined analysis. Although the
genetic diversity of the USA group was relatively higher than the China
group, the number of haplotypes and alleles of both groups was small.
Molecular variance (AMOVA), intraspecific phylogeny, and haplotype
networks indicated that P. americana had very little global genetic
differentiation. The weak geographic genetic structure might reflect the
human-mediated dispersal of P. americana. Despite no apparent
phylogeographic assignment of mtDNA and nuclear lineages was observed in
both BI trees, the integrated COI sequence data identified four distinct
P. americana haplotype groups, showing four ancient maternal lineages of
P. americana in China and the USA.