Phylogeographic patterns of the vine mealybug ( Planococcus ficus Signoret) and the grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3) in Northwestern Mexico

The vine mealybug, a global phytosanitary problem, vectors GLRaV-3, the main virus causing grapevine leafroll disease. In Mexico, this mealybug was first found in Sonora (2000), and later (2014) in Baja California (BC). In this study, marker DNA sequences from mealybugs (its1 and co1) and GLRaV-3 (hsp70h) from BC, alongside NCBI database sequences, were used for phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses to assess the monophyly of the BC samples, finding that both the vine mealybug populations and GLRaV-3 isolates are closely related to clades from the USA, and were likely introduced on separate occasions. It is not clear if the insect and virus invasions occurred concurrently.