Establishment of an acaricide-susceptible Tetranychus urticae strain and its species confirmation based on morphological and molecular characters

Acquisition of a reference Tetranychus strain that is completely susceptible to acaricides and retains an identical genetic background to acaricide-resistant strains is an essential step in elucidating mechanisms of resistance. To establish a strain completely susceptible to various acaricides, we collected Tetranychus mite populations from several regions in South Korea, including both remote and heavily cultivated regions. We tested their suitability as a susceptible reference strain by determining baseline susceptibility to six acaricides and by determining species identity as Tetranychus urticae. The UD strain, originally collected from a remote island region, was found to be most susceptible to all five major acaricides tested and was confirmed to as T. urticae on the basis of both morphological and molecular evidence. Moreover, molecular phylogenetic analysis revealed that the UD strain is an ancestral strain of other prevalently collected green-type strains. Taken together, we propose that the UD strain can be used as a susceptible reference strain for T. urticae resistance studies as it provides baseline susceptibility to acaricides and possesses a common genetic background with most other acaricide-resistant strains.