Abstract
IntroductionBrown planthoppers (Nilaparvata lugens) are the most serious insect pests of rice, one of the world's most important staple crops. They reproduce year‐round in the tropical parts of their distribution, but cannot overwinter in the temperate areas where they occur, and invade seasonally from elsewhere. Decades of research have not revealed their source unambiguously.Methods and ResultsWe sequenced the genomes of brown planthopper populations from across temperate and tropical parts of their distribution and show that the Indochinese peninsula is the major source of migration into temperate China. The Philippines, once considered a key source, is not significant, with little evidence for their migration into China. We find support for immigration from the west of China contributing to these regional dynamics.DiscussionThe lack of connectivity between the Philippine population and the mainland Chinese populations explains the different evolution of Imidacloprid resistance in these populations. This study highlights the promise of whole‐genome sequence data to understand migration when gene flow is high—a situation that has been difficult to resolve using traditional genetic markers.
Highlights
Understanding the migration dynamics and connectivity of populations is crucial to setting management priorities for pest insects
When we restricted the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis to COI, the same major haplotype was present across all populations, but several unique haplotypes were found in the Philippines (Fig. 2)
Our results show that a population genomics approach contributes considerably to our understanding of the migration dynamics of brown planthoppers
Summary
Understanding the migration dynamics and connectivity of populations is crucial to setting management priorities for pest insects. This is due to the central role population connectivity plays in the evolution of traits such as insecticide resistance and biological traits that enhance the pest status of an insect, such as the ability to overcome crops bred to be resistant to insect damage (Hendry et al 2011). The use of only a few genetic markers has often failed to provide the necessary resolution in high gene flow systems (Reitzel et al 2013). Perhaps the ability to generate whole-genome sequence data can provide the necessary resolution in these high gene flow pest systems
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