Use of molecular markers for entomological diversity assessment and their application in population study of aphids

Molecular marker use is one of the most important tool in development in the field of population genetics from the last several years. These techniques are used to detect and exploit the DNA polymorphism among different individuals at species and/or population levels. Several molecular markers have been developed during the past few decades, and their various principles and procedures endow them different properties, according to which, some factors, such as time, cost repeatability and difficulty, should be considered before selecting the most efficient molecular approach. We reviewed nine frequently-used molecular markers (barcoding, allozymes, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), microsatellite DNA (SSR, STR), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), mitochondria DNA (mtDNA)) to be applied to population study of aphids as well as factors affecting genetic diversity of aphid. We aim at providing a basis for the selection of molecular markers in population genetics and obtaining a comprehensive acquaintance of genetic diversity study of aphids for tracing their evolutionary history implicating enlightenments for further aphid control.