ARS | Publication request: Isothermal Amplification of Insect DNA

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 27, 2012
Publication Date: March 27, 2012
Citation: Dickey, A.M., Osborne, L.S., Shatters, R.G., McKenzie, C.L. 2012. Isothermal Amplification of Insect DNA [Abstract]. 7th International IPM Symposium, March 27-29, Memphis, Tennessee.

Technical Abstract: The loop-mediated isothermal amplification of DNA (LAMP) method can amplify a target DNA sequence at a constant temperature in about one hour. LAMP has broad application in agriculture and medicine because of the need for rapid and inexpensive diagnoses. LAMP eliminates the need for temperature cycling and thus overcomes a critical barrier to the use of nucleic acid testing at the site of detection. The power of LAMP is being used by researchers and clinicians for pathogen detection and positive identification but agricultural applications have been much more limited. LAMP should be well suited to the identification of economically and medically important insects, particularly for members of cryptic species complexes, which cannot be distinguished morphologically. Here we report advances toward the development of field-capable LAMP assays to distinguish sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) cryptic species known as biotypes B and Q.