Loss of genetic variation in laboratory colonies of chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) revealed by mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA markers

Abstract

The Asiatic rice borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker), is an important insect pest of rice in China. The genetic variation of a set of laboratory colonies of C. suppressalis was compared with their source populations in the wild (laboratory colonies BJCK, BJ1AB, and BJ1AC versus wild population BJW; laboratory colonies FZCK and FZ1CA versus wild population FZW) and was analyzed using eight microsatellite markers and two partial mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) regions (COI and COII). Results from both analyses revealed similar patterns. Microsatellite DNA analysis showed that the two wild populations (BJW and FZW) harbored more private alleles and had higher levels of gene diversity, and observed and expected heterozygosity, compared with the laboratory colonies. Mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed that the two wild populations (BJW and FZW) had higher numbers of haplotypes compared with the five laboratory colonies. The three Beijing laboratory-reared colonies (BJ1CK, BJ1AB, and BJ1AC) had one fixed haplotype (H04). Most of the pairwise FST values based on mtDNA were high and all pairwise FST comparisons based on microsatellite DNA were significant, which indicated that the significant differences between these colonies and populations. Genetic drift caused by several factors, such as founder effect, small effective population size, rearing protocols, and inbreeding, can contribute to the rapid loss of genetic variation and affect the distribution of alleles and haplotypes. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the sample size of source populations to prevent the loss of genetic variation and genetic differentiation between different colonies.