P-336 - E-probes Diagnostic Nucleic-acids Analysis (EDNA) for the Detection of Bacterial Endosymbionts in Bemisia tabaci

Sweetpotato whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) are cosmopolitan phloem-feeding agricultural pests that transmit viruses to a broad range of host plants. B. tabaci is believed to originate from the Middle East; B. tabaci Middle East Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1). It was discovered in the United States in the 1980s. Within the whitefly, the maternally inherited bacterial endosymbionts provide their host with nutrients lacking in the phloem and facilitate other functions. In this study, an e-probe diagnostic nucleic acid analysis (EDNA) was developed to detect the presence of specific endosymbionts in B. tabaci to facilitate the study of host-bacterial interactions. The EDNA-endosymbiont is also a tool for the assessment of B. tabaci-transmitted pathogens and their virulence. The EDNA pipeline is compared to a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine the pipeline’s efficiency in detecting DNA from the endosymbionts. An in silico simulation of EDNA-endosymbiont electronic probes is discussed. This study will ultimately lead us to a fast and accurate way to identify endosymbiont populations that interact with B. tabaci.