A Sugarcane Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) Super-Clone Remains on US Sorghum and Johnsongrass and Feeds on Giant Miscanthus

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 x 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.

Automated summary

Since 2013, a super-clone of the sugarcane aphid Melanaphis sacchari Zehntner has been prevalent in the United States, persisting in samples collected in 2018 and continuing to dominate the genotype in samples collected from new hosts in 2018-2019.