Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidea) populations from Southern Iran belong to haplotype K of the mitochondrial COI

A molecular characterization based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene was used to genotype central-southern Iranian populations of Varroa destructor for the first time. A 570 bp segement was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction and digested with two restriction enzymes. Digestion of PCR products with XhoI produced fragments of 300 and 270 bp in all samples, whereas digestion with SacI did not produce any digested fragments. Results suggest that all samples belong to the K haplotype previously described for V. destructor in the literature. A total of 22 sequences of Iranian samples (418bp) were registered for the first time in NCBI.