Abstract
Although the Masson pine moth, Dendrolimus punctatus, is one of the most destructive forest pest insects and is an endemic condition in China, we still do not fully understand the patterns of how its distribution range varies in response to Quaternary climatic oscillations. Here, we sequenced one maternally inherited mitochondrial gene (COI) and biparentally inherited nuclear data (ITS1 and ITS2) among 23 natural populations across the entire range of the species in China. A total of 51 mitotypes and 38 ribotypes were separately obtained using mtDNA and ITS1 data. Furthermore, significant phylogeographical structure (N ST > G ST, p < 0.01) were detected. The spatial distribution of mitotypes implied that two distinct groups existed in the species: one in the southwest distribution, including 10 locations, and the other located in the northeast region of China. It is suggested, therefore, that each group was derived from ancestors that occupied different isolated refugia during previous periods, possibly last glacial maximum. Mismatch distribution and Bayesian population dynamics analysis suggested the population size underwent sudden expansion, which is consistent with the results of ecological niche modeling. As a typical phytophagous insect, the history of population expansion was in accordance with the host plants, providing abundant food resources and habitat. Intraspecific success rate of barcoding identification was lower than interspecific ones, indicating a level of difficulty in barcoding individuals from different populations. However, it still provides an early insight into the pattern of genetic diversity within a species.OPEN RESEARCH BADGES This article has been awarded an Open Data and Open Materials. All materials and data are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2df87g2. Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science: https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki.
Highlights
DNA bar‐ coding has been widely used as a concept to facilitate biological identifications at the species level (Hebert, Cywinska, Ball, & deWaard, 2003), there has been limited use related to lower cat‐ egories such as subspecies and populations (Huemer & Hebert, 2011; Valade et al, 2009)
To ex‐ plore the feasibility of populations that identify within D. punctatus, DNA barcoding gap analysis was performed based on distance‐ and character‐based methods (Dai et al, 2012)
This phenomenon could be explained as re‐ peated population expansion and contraction caused by climate oscillations during the ice age, which resulted in lineage differ‐ entiation and limited gene flow
Summary
It has been widely accepted that the distribution and genetic struc‐ ture of current organism have been greatly affected by environ‐ mental factors and their historical processes (Hewitt, 2000). Dendrolimus punctatus (Walker, 1985) distributed in subtropical China was adopted in our study to identify whether the genetic differentiation of host plants, caused by climate changes during the ice age, affects genetic vari‐ ation of their predators, the phytophagous insects. DNA bar‐ coding has been widely used as a concept to facilitate biological identifications at the species level (Hebert, Cywinska, Ball, & deWaard, 2003), there has been limited use related to lower cat‐ egories such as subspecies and populations (Huemer & Hebert, 2011; Valade et al, 2009) These lower categories, defined by evidence of geographical, morphological, and ecological criteria, can be potential or cryptic species (DeSalle, 2006).
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