GENETIC DIVERSITY AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP OF GERMAN COCKROACHES, Blattella germanica (L.) (BLATTODEA: ECTOBIIDAE) FROM URBAN COMMERCIAL SPACES

Nurul Akmar Hussin, Li Lim, Wan Aisyah Natasya Wan Gidi Sairee, Hussein Ali Baiqr, Martini Martini, Retno Hestiningsih, Sri Yuliawati, Ameilia Zuliyanti Siregar, Abdul Hafiz Ab Majid

Abstract


Infestations of German cockroach (Blattella germanica) pose a significant threat to public health and the economy. Understanding its population's genetic diversity can improve pest control strategies to tackle this resilient pest. Therefore, this study focused on the genetic analysis of several populations of B. germanica collected from urban commercial spaces in Penang, Malaysia. Five urban commercial spaces, comprising restaurants and shopping centres, were selected from Bukit Mertajam, Juru, Bayan Lepas, and Gelugor. A total of 30 isolates were collected, and fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and the 16S rRNA gene were amplified and sequenced. Genetic analysis revealed the formation of two haplotypes, separating B. germanica populations from shopping complexes and restaurants, with slightly higher nucleotide diversity observed in populations from shopping centers. Phylogenetic analysis using the Neighbor-Joining method also supported the observed separation between populations from restaurants and shopping centers. These findings suggest that the population genetics of B. germanica in urban areas is influenced by human-mediated activities, reflecting their adaptability and ongoing evolution. This indirectly underscores the significance of refining the integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for more effective pest control in high-traffic commercial areas. 


Full Text:

PDF

References


Booth, W., Santangelo, R.G., Vargo, E.L., Mukha, D.V. & Schal, C. 2011. Population genetic structure in German cockroaches (Blattella Germanica): Differentiated islands in an agricultural landscape. Journal of Heredity 102(2): 175-183.

Crissman, J.R., Booth, W., Santangelo, R.G., Mukha, D.V., Vargo, E.L. & Schal, C. 2010. Population genetic structure of the German cockroach (Blattodea: Blattellidae) in apartment buildings. Journal of Medical Entomology 47(4): 553-564.

Cruz, X.M.S. & Sfara, V. 2018. Chemical signals are involved in the detection and preference of food sources in Blattella germanica. Emerging Science Journal 2(5): 261-271.

Doorenweerd, C., San Jose, M., Leblanc, L., Barr, N., Geib, S.M., Chung, A.Y.C., Dupuis, J.R., Ekayanti, A., Fiegalan, E., Hemachandra, K.S., Hossain, M.A., Huang, C.L., Hsu, Y.F., Morris, K.Y., Maryani, A., Mustapeng, A., Niogret, J., Pham, T.H., Thi Nguyen, N., Sirisena, U.G.A.I., Todd, T. & Rubinoff, D. 2024. Towards a better future for DNA barcoding: Evaluating monophyly- and distance-based species identification using COI gene fragments of Dacini fruit flies. Molecular Ecology Resources 24(6): e13987.

Evcen, R., Çölkesen, F., Yıldız, E., Sadi Aykan, F., Kılınç, M. & Arslan, Ş. 2024. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cockroach allergy: A 4-year retrospective study. International Archives of Allergy and Immunology 185(11): 1066-1073.

Folmer, O., Black, M., Hoeh, W., Lutz, R. & Vrijenhoek, R. 1994. DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology 3(5): 294-299.

Gao, H., Zang, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhao, H., Ma, W., Chen, X., Wang, J., Zhao, D., Wang, X., Huang, Y. & Zhang, F. 2023. Transcriptome analysis revealed that short-term stress in Blattella germanica to β-cypermethrin can reshape the phenotype of resistance adaptation. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 197: 105703.

Gits, M.P., Gondhalekar, A.D. & Scharf, M.E. 2023. Impacts of bioassay type on insecticide resistance assessment in the German cockroach (Blattodea: Ectobiidae). Journal of Medical Entomology 60(2): 356-363.

Hashemi-Aghdam, S.S., Rafie, G., Akbari, S. & Oshaghi, M.A. 2017. Utility of mtDNA-COI barcode region for phylogenetic relationship and diagnosis of five common pest cockroaches. Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases 11(2): 182-193.

Hu, I.H., Tzeng, H.Y., Chen, M.E., Lee, C.Y. & Neoh, K.B. 2021. Association of CYP4G19 expression with gel bait performance in pyrethroid-resistant German cockroaches (Blattodea: Ectobiidae) from Taiwan. Journal of Economic Entomology 114(4): 1764-1770.

Jeffery, Sulaiman, S., Zainol-Ariffin, Razak, A., Kamil-Ali, Rohela, M. & Abdul-Aziz. 2012. Domiciliary cockroaches found in restaurants in five zones of Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory, peninsular Malaysia. Tropical Biomedicine 29(1): 180-186.

Joaty, J.Y., Rahman, M.M., Amin, M.R., Arifur Rahman, Khan, M.A.R. & Hassan, J. 2022. Mitochondrial DNA based phylogeny and haplotype networking of European honeybee Apis mellifera L. in Bangladesh. Serangga 27(3): 220-237.

Konkala, A. & Narra, M.R. 2024. Comparative study on biochemical responses to imidacloprid and clothianidin in cockroaches (Blattella germanica). Physiological Entomology 49(4): 401-411.

Kumar, S., Stecher, G. & Tamura, K. 2016. MEGA7: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Molecular Biology and Evolution 33(7): 1870-1874.

Larkin, M.A., Blackshields, G., Brown, N.P., Chenna, R., Mcgettigan, P.A., McWilliam, H., Valentin, F., Wallace, I.M., Wilm, A., Lopez, R., Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J. & Higgins, D.G. 2007. Clustal W and Clustal X version 2.0. Bioinformatics 23(21): 2947-2948.

Lee, S.H., Choe, D.H., Rust, M.K. & Lee, C.Y. 2024a. Oral toxicity of an artificial sweetener sucralose on the German cockroach (Blattodea: Ectobiidae) and its impact on water balance and gut microbiome. Journal of Economic Entomology 117(1): 268-279.

Lee, S.H., So, J., Kund, G.S., Lum, J.-Y., Trinh, E., Ta, E.L., Chungsawat, R., Choe, D.H., Cox, D.L., Rust, M.K. & Lee, C.Y. 2024b. Toxicity of isocycloseram, an isoxazoline insecticide, against laboratory and field-collected German cockroaches (Blattodea: Ectobiidae). Journal of Economic Entomology 117(3): 1086-1094.

Magoga, G., Forni, G., Brunetti, M., Meral, A., Spada, A., De Biase, A. & Montagna, M. 2022. Curation of a reference database of COI sequences for insect identification through DNA metabarcoding: COins. Database 00: baac055.

Manzanares-Sierra, A., Monsonís-Güell, E., Gómez, C., Abril, S. & Moreno-Gómez, M. 2025. Essential oils as bioinsecticides against Blattella germanica (Linnaeus, 1767): Evaluating its efficacy under a practical framework. Insects 16(1): 68.

Marín-Miret, J., Pérez-Cobas, A.E., Domínguez-Santos, R., Pérez-Rocher, B., Latorre, A. & Moya, A. 2024. Adaptability of the gut microbiota of the German cockroach Blattella germanica to a periodic antibiotic treatment. Microbiological Research 28: 127863.

McPherson, S., Wada-Katsumata, A., Hatano, E., Silverman, J. & Schal, C. 2021. Comparison of diet preferences of laboratory-reared and apartment-collected German cockroaches. Journal of Economic Entomology 114(5): 2189-2197.

Mond, M. & Pietri, J.E. 2023. Horizontal transmission of Salmonella Typhimurium among German cockroaches and its possible mechanisms. Ecology and Evolution 13(5): e10070.

Nasirian, H. 2017a. Contamination of cockroaches (Insecta: Blattaria) to medically fungi: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal de Mycologie Medicale 27(4): 427-448.

Nasirian, H. 2017b. Infestation of cockroaches (Insecta: Blattaria) in the human dwelling environments: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Acta Tropica 167: 86-98.

Nasirian, H. 2019a. Contamination of cockroaches (Insecta: Blattaria) by medically important Bacteriae: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Entomology 56(6): 1534-1554.

Nasirian, H. 2019b. Recent cockroach bacterial contamination trend in the human dwelling environments: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science 18(3): 540-545.

Nasirian, H. & Salehzadeh, A. 2019. Control of cockroaches (Blattaria) in sewers: A practical approach systematic review. Journal of Medical Entomology 56(1): 181-191.

Notredame, C., Higgins, D.G. & Heringa, J. 2000. T-coffee: A novel method for fast and accurate multiple sequence alignment. Journal of Molecular Biology 302(1): 205-217.

Oz, E., Polat, B., Cengiz, A., Kahraman, S., Gultekin, Z.N., Caliskan, C. & Cetin, H. 2024. Effects of solid and aqueous dietary diflubenzuron ingestion on some biological parameters in synthetic pyrethroid-resistant German cockroach, Blattella germanica L. (Blattodea: Ectobiidae). Medical and Veterinary Entomology 38(2): 172-178.

Rajab, A.M., Moravvej, G. & Asoodeh, A. 2020. Rapid, one-step DNA extraction for the identification of German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.) (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae) using DNA sequence of mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene (16S rRNA gene). Journal of Entomological Research 44(2): 189-194.

Rozas, J., Ferrer-Mata, A., Sanchez-DelBarrio, J.C., Guirao-Rico, S., Librado, P., Ramos-Onsins, S.E. & Sanchez-Gracia, A. 2017. DnaSP 6: DNA sequence polymorphism analysis of large data sets. Molecular Biology and Evolution 34(12): 3299-3302.

Sayusti, T., Raffiudin, R., Atmowidi, T., Aisyah, C.N., Ludiro, F.R., Baher, R.A., Putra, R.E., Soesilohadi, RC.H. & Purnobasuki, H. 2023. High genetic variations of the stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps based on mitochondrial DNA of cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene in Sumatra and Java, Indonesia. Serangga 28(3): 295-311.

Srinu, G. 2018. COI vs 16s rRNA sequences: Molecular characterization of Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) vector species from India. International Journal of Advanced Science and Research 60(1): 60-64.

Tang, Q., Vargo, E.L., Ahmad, I., Jiang, H., Varadínová, Z.K., Dovih, P., Kim, D., Bourguignon, T., Booth, W., Schal, C., Mukha, D.V., Rheindt, F.E. & Evans, T.A. 2024. Solving the 250-year-old mystery of the origin and global spread of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 121(22): e2401185121.

Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J., Plewniak, F., Jeanmougin, F. & Higgins, D.G. 1997. The CLUSTAL_X windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Research 25(24): 4876-4882.

Tisgratog, R., Panyafeang, C., Lee, S.H., Rust, M.K. & Lee, C.Y. 2023. Insecticide resistance and its potential mechanisms in field-collected German cockroaches (Blattodea: Ectobiidae) from Thailand. Journal of Economic Entomology 116(4): 1321-1328.

Tseng, S.P., Lee, S.H., Choe, D.H. & Lee, C.Y. 2024. Overexpression of cytochrome P450 gene CYP6K1 is associated with pyrethroid resistance in German cockroaches (Blattodea: Ectobiidae) from California. Journal of Economic Entomology 117(3): 1071-1076.

Vargo, E.L., Crissman, J.R., Booth, W., Santangelo, R.G., Mukha, D.V. & Schal, C. 2014. Hierarchical genetic analysis of German cockroach (Blattella germanica) populations from within buildings to across continents. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102321.

Xiao, B., Chen, A.H., Zhang, Y.Y., Jiang, G.F., Hu, C.C. & Zhu, C.D. 2012. Complete mitochondrial genomes of two cockroaches, Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana, and the phylogenetic position of termites. Current Genetics 58(2): 65-77.

Yulianti, D.M., Hikam, A.R., Ambarningrum, T.B. & Satwika, T.D. 2023. Detection of pathogen foodborne disease bacteria Staphylococcus aureus from German cockroach (Blattella germanica) in the hospital area. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1230(1): 012085.

Zhu, F., Lavine, L., O’Neal, S., Lavine, M., Foss, C. & Walsh, D. 2016. Insecticide resistance and management strategies in urban ecosystems. Insects 7(1): 2.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.