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.