Analyses of adult transcriptomes from four different populations of the spongy moth, Lymantria dispar L., from China and the USA

Abstract

The spongy moth Lymantria dispar, formerly known as the gypsy moth, is a forest pest that occurs as two different biotypes: the European spongy moth (ESM), Lymantria dispar dispar, which is distributed in Europe and North America; and the Asian spongy moth (ASM), which consists of subspecies Lymantria dispar asiatica and Lymantria dispar japonica and is distributed in China, Russia, Korea, and Japan. The Asian biotype is classified as a quarantine pest by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of the superior flight ability of adult females compared to females of the European biotype. To identify genes that potentially account for differences in female flight capability between the two biotypes, we assembled and compared transcriptional profiles of two North American populations of ESM and two Chinese populations of ASM, including samples of unmated female adults and females after mating and oviposition. Of 129,286 unigenes identified, 306 were up-regulated in ASM samples relative to ESM, including genes involved in egg production. In contrast, 2309 unigenes were down-regulated in ASM samples, including genes involved in energy production. Although a previous study found that ASM female flight was reduced after oviposition, a comparison of gene expression before and after mating and oviposition did not reveal any genes which were consistently up- or down-regulated in the two ASM populations.

Selective manipulation of the host RNA-polymerase transcription fidelity increases phenotypic mutations in an insectParvovirus

“…We focused our analysis on 7 ROIs distributed over the two viral transcripts (representing 20% of the viral transcriptome) and 7 representative ROIs of the host transcriptome in the EF1 elongation factor, Argonaute RISC Catalytic Component 2 and Ubiquitin–selected, as well as recently annotated Lymantria dispar transcripts ( Supplementary Table S2 ) from the study of Sparks et al (31), which cover distinct cellular pathways and have different expression patterns ( Supplementary figure S2 ) (32, 33). We observed a non-uniform distribution of mutations across mRNA positions, suggesting that errors are not fully random, independently of the sequencing depth ( Supplementary figure S3 ).…”

Lymantria Dispar Iflavirus 1 RNA Comprises a Large Proportion of RNA in Adult L. dispar Moths

“…RNA-Seq data recently generated from four geographical isolates of spongy moth by the authors [ 14 ] were retrieved from NCBI SRA (see Table 1 ). Three reference LdIV1 genome sequences were also retrieved: the original IPLB-Ld-652Y cell-line-derived sequence (“Ames strain”, NCBI reference sequence NC_024497.1, GenBank identifier: KJ629170.1) [ 12 ] and two additional LdIV1 genomes originating from Russia (MN938851.1, “Siberia” [ 15 ] and MT753155.1, “Koltsovo”).…”

“…In contrast, adult females of L. dispar dispar , formerly known as “European gypsy moth,” represent a separate biotype characterized by a diminished or absent flight capability. We recently reported a transcriptomic survey of adult spongy moths from four different populations, including moths from Connecticut, USA (CT); New Jersey, USA (NJ); Zunyi, Guizhou, China (ZY); and Jingeshan, Hebei, China (JGS) [ 14 ]. On the basis of geographic location, the CT and NJ populations correspond to L. dispar dispar , while the ZY and JGS populations correspond to L. dispar asiatica .…”

“…NCBI SRA accessions of Lymantria dispar RNA-Seq samples as previously reported inWang et al (2022) [14].…”

Assessment of spongy moth infestation impacts on forest productivity and carbon loss using the Sentinel-2 satellite remote sensing and eddy covariance flux data

“…In North America, frequent outbreaks of insect infestations including mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae ) infestation in western parts and spongy moth ( Lymantria dispar ) infestations in eastern regions have been the major factors impacting forest growth, health and C balance (Kurz et al 2002 ). The spongy moth is a non-native species originally from Europe and Asia (Joria et al 1991 ; Wang et al 2022 ), that was first accidentally introduced in Boston area in USA in 1869 (Williams et al 1985 ; Picq et al 2023 ). Since then, it has expanded its range from New England to southward in Virginia to North Carolina and westward in Wisconsin, Michigan and the Great Lakes regions in USA and Canada (De Beurs and Townsend 2008 ; Hajek et al 2021 ).…”