Population genetic characterization of the Japanese oak silkmoth, Antheraea yamamai (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), using novel microsatellite markers and mitochondrial DNA gene sequences

Abstract

The Japanese oak silkmoth, Antheraea yamamai Guérin-Méneville, 1861 (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), is an important natural resource of industrial value for silk fiber production. Owing to a lack of geographic and population genetic information, systematic domestication of An. yamamai has not been possible yet. In this study, 10 microsatellite markers developed using next-generation sequencing and two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene sequences (COI and ND4) were used to investigate the genetic variation and geographic structure of An. yamamai populations in South Korea. The two mtDNA gene sequences revealed very low total genetic variation and, consequently, low geographic variation, validating the use of more variable molecular markers. Genotyping of 76 An. yamamai individuals from nine localities in South Korea showed that the observed number of alleles at each locus ranged from 3 to 26, the polymorphism information content was 0.2990-0.9014, the observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.3252-0.9076 and 0.2500-0.9054, respectively, and F was -0.654-0.520. The population-based F, F, R, and global Mantel tests all suggested that the An. yamamai populations were overall well-interconnected, suggesting that any population can be used as a genetic source for domestication. Nevertheless, STRUCTURE analyses using microsatellite data and mtDNA sequences indicated the presence of two genetic pools in many populations, although a plausible explanation for this observation requires further studies.

Mitogenomics and phylogenetics of twelve species of African Saturniidae (Lepidoptera)

“…Average sequence coverage varied between 197× ( H. smilax ) and 1810× ( H. dyops ) ( Table 2 ). The total length of the new mitogenomes ranged from 15,218 bp ( V. ducalis ) to 15,363 bp ( N. cytherea ), in line with those of other Saturniidae ( Kim et al., 2017a ; Kim et al., 2017b ; Langley et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021 ; Chen et al, 2021 ). All mitogenomes generated in this study are identical in gene content and organization and include the 13 PCGs, two rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes typical of Metazoa.…”

“…All 13 PCGs initiate with standard ATN start codons except COI and COII, which start with the alternative codons CGA and GTG, respectively. CGA as the start codon for COI has been reported to be highly conserved in Lepidoptera ( Margam et al, 2011 ), and GTG was reported as the start codon for COII in A. assamensis , E. pyretorum , S. boisduvalii and S. ricini ( Jiang et al, 2009 ; Kim et al, 2012 ; Singh et al, 2017 ; Kim et al., 2017a ; Kim et al., 2017b ). PCGs terminate with complete TAA or TAG codons or with incomplete TA- or T-, which are presumed to be completed by posttranscriptional modifications such as polyadenylation ( Salinas-Giegé, Giegé & Giegé, 2015 ) ( Fig.…”

“…Mitogenomes are widely used for phylogenetic reconstruction in insects, and deeper taxonomic coverage and recent methodological developments have allowed for improved recovery of relationships among taxa, even those affected by compositional heterogeneity and accelerated evolutionary rates ( Song et al, 2016 ). Mitochondrial phylogeny estimates of Saturniidae have mostly been limited to Asian species ( Jiang et al, 2009 ; Zhang, Zhao & Zhou, 2016 ; Kim et al., 2017a ; Kim et al., 2017b ; Li et al, 2017 ; Saikia, Nath & Devi, 2019 ; Kim et al., 2009 ; Liu et al, 2021 ), and only two African species in the tribe Bunaeini ( G. belina and Gy. maja ) were recently included ( Langley et al, 2020 ), representing approximately 1% of the total species recorded in Africa and 4% of all saturniid mitogenomes publicly available.…”

Genetic Variation May Have Promoted the Successful Colonization of the Invasive Gall Midge, Obolodiplosis robiniae, in China

“…DNA-based molecular markers have been extensively used to examine the genetic diversity and population structure of a wide range of species. Microsatellite DNA markers (simple sequence repeats, SSRs) are suitable for routine genetic diversity analyses (Varshney et al, 2007;Kong et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2017), as they are ubiquitous among eukaryotes (Sharma et al, 2007), co-dominantly inherited, and highly polymorphic (Zong et al, 2015). Moreover, microsatellite analysis can yield valid results and improved phylogenetic trees compared to analyses involving other molecular markers (Schemerhorn et al, 2015).…”

“…Moreover, microsatellite analysis can yield valid results and improved phylogenetic trees compared to analyses involving other molecular markers (Schemerhorn et al, 2015). Due to their feasibility and practicality, microsatellite markers have been widely used in population genetics and ecological studies of various insects (Bonizzoni et al, 2000;Mezghani-Khemakhem et al, 2012;Anjos et al, 2016;Retamal et al, 2016;Duan et al, 2017;Kim et al, 2017;Simonato et al, 2019), including several invasive gall midge species (Bentur et al, 2011;Amouroux et al, 2013).…”