Project description:The pink stem borer, Sesamia inferens (Walker), is a significant polyphagous pest historically restricted to regions south of N34° latitude. However, with changes in global climate and farming practices, the distribution of this moth has progressively exceeded its traditional limit of 34° N and encompassed most regions in North China. The genetic adaptations of S. inferens remain incompletely understood due to the lack of high-quality genome resources. Here, we sequenced the genome of S. inferens using PacBio and Hi-C technology, yielding a genome assembly of 865.04 Mb with contig N50 of 1.23 Mb. BUSCO analysis demonstrated this genome assembly has a high-level completeness of 96.1% gene coverage. In total, 459.72 Mb repeat sequences (53.14% of the assembled genome) and 20858 protein-coding genes were identified. We used the Hi-C technique to anchor 1135 contigs to 31 chromosomes, yielding a chromosome-level genome assembly with a scaffold N50 of 29.99 Mb. In conclusion, our high-quality genome assembly provided valuable resource that exploring the genetic characteristics of local adaptation and developing an efficient control strategy.
Project description:Pink stem borer, Sesamia inferens (Walker, 1856) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is reported to infest many graminaceous crops and cause significant losses. S. inferens cause damage by killing the central shoot and producing a characteristic symptom called "dead heart". Since graminaceous crops are an important source of food for humans and their livestock, impetus should be given on designing efficient management strategies against pink stem borer. The study of genetic variability of pest populations enables to interpret the ecological investigations correctly and also helps to comprehend the dissimilar response of pest to management tactics. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the diversity in S. inferens populations using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequences from India, Pakistan, China and Indonesia. Analysis revealed a very low nucleotide diversity in Indian populations (π = 0.00981), as compared to a high nucleotide diversity in the sequences outside India (π = 0.4989). The phylogenetic analysis also did not show any clustering among populations within India and Pakistan. However, the nearest neighbour for the Indian and Pakistan population is a sequence from Indonesia followed by China indicating possible ancestral background. This is the maiden attempt to assess the molecular diversity of Indian populations in comparison to populations from other Asian countries.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-021-02678-y.