Bemisia tabaci Genome sequencing. Bemisia tabaci

The sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) complex, contains more than 40 cryptic species, among which B. tabaci MEAM1 (also known as biotype B) and B. tabaci MED (also known as biotype Q) have been introduced into many countries including China. With the invasion of B. tabaci MEAM1 and MED, the displacement of the indigenous species of B. tabaci occurred worldwide over the past decades in China. In the present review we discuss the species composition and geographic distribution of indigenous B. tabaci in China collected between 2002-2012 and the recent investigation in conducted in 2018. At least 14 indigenous species of B. tabaci have been verified from China including B. tabaci AsiaI, AsiaII1, AsiaII2, AsiaII3, AsiaII4, AsiaII6, AsiaII7, AsiaII9, AsiaII10, Asia III, China1, China2, China3, and China6, which are distributed in 16 provinces in southeastern and central China. Our recent investigation showed that the indigenous species of B. tabaci was able to coexist with or even dominate the introduced B. tabaci species (B. tabaci MEAM1 and/or MED), proving that B. tabaci MEAM1 or MED has not succeeded in completely displacing the indigenous B. tabaci species in China during the ca. 20 years since becoming established.