Since 2013, the sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari Zehntner, has been a perennial pest to U.S. sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, production with yield declines in susceptible hybrids ranging from 50 to 100%. Previous studies have found that a single clonal genotype predominates in samples collected from sugarcane (Saccharum spp.), sorghum, and Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense [L.] Persoon), from 2013 to 2017 in the continental United States. We sought to determine if the “super-clone” persists in sugarcane aphid samples collected in 2018 from five U.S. states and one territory and to identify the multilocus lineage of samples collected in 2018–2019 from a new host, giant miscanthus, Miscanthus sinensis× Miscanthus sacchariflorus Greef & Deuter ex Hodkinson & Renvoize. Thirty-one samples collected from Columbus grass (Sorghum almum Parodi), Johnsongrass, sorghum, and giant miscanthus in 2018 were genotyped using 9 simple sequence repeat markers; 29 samples had identical alleles to the multilocus lineage F super-clone. All samples (n = 7) collected from giant miscanthus in 2018–2019 also had identical alleles to the predominant genotype.
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9 February 2021
A Sugarcane Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) “Super-Clone” Remains on U.S. Sorghum and Johnsongrass and Feeds on Giant Miscanthus
Karen Harris-Shultz,
Xinzhi Ni
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Melanaphis sacchari
Miscanthus sinensis × M. sacchariflorus
MLL-F
Sorghum bicolor
Sorghum halepense