Biochemical and Molecular Diversity Analysis of Culturable Bacteria in Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a Parasitoid of Diamondback Moth, Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus)

Abstract

Geographical populations of Cotesia plutellae, a predominant endolarval parasitoid of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus) were screened and analyzed for bacterial diversity. The culturable bacterial species were isolated and identified by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene. Eleven bacterial isolates were identified viz., Pseudomonas sp., Enterobacter cancerogenus, Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas putida, Pantoea agglomerans, Bacillus thuringiensis, Pantoea sp. and Bacillus cereus. The molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis placed these phylotypes into two major classes i.e. Bacilli and Gamma proteobacteria. The evolutionary distance matrix (Pairwise distance) showed similarity between the sequences. The bacterial diversity observed was low in the different geographic populations. The nucleotide sequences were blasted and submitted to GenBank.