Identification of Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) based on RAPD and design of two SCAR markers NOUREDDINE BOUKHATEM1, SAMIRA JDAINI1, YORDAN MUHOVSKI2, JEAN MARIE JACQUEMIN2 and ABDERRAHIME BOUALI1* 1 Genetic and Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, University Mohamed 1er, P.O. Box 524, Oujda 60000, Morocco 2 Centre Wallon de Recherches Agronomiques Gembloux, Département de Biotechnologie, 234, Chaussée de Charleroi, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium Abstract A survey was made to assess the biotype status of whitefly Bemisia tabaci populations in the agricultural region of north-east of Morocco. The study involved application of the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA technique (RAPD) for three populations of B. tabaci collected from different host plants. Results obtained were consistent and showed that the northeastern Moroccan populations of B. tabaci were composed of two genetic types, namely the B and Q biotypes. This is one of the first reports about the invasion of the B biotype into Morocco. In this manuscript, we report the development of simple and cost-effective markers that distinguish between the two B. tabaci biotypes B and Q, by using locus-specific sequence characterised amplified region (SCAR) markers. Two putative, biotype-specific RAPD markers were generated using the OPA-10 and OPT-01 primers. The SCAR markers were developed from two obtained sequences. Two pairs of primers were designed, and then used to amplify efficiently specific markers for the B and Q biotypes.   < back .