The Japanese oak silkmoth, Antheraea yamamai Guérin-Méneville 1861 (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), is one of the important natural resources possessing industrial value for silk fiber production. In this study, ten microsatellite markers and two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene sequences (COI and ND4) were used to investigate the genetic variation and geographic structure of A. yamamai populations in South Korea. Two mtDNA gene sequences revealed very low total genetic variation and resultant low geographic variation, validating to use further variable molecular markers. Population-based FIS, FST, RST, and global Mantel test consistently support that A. yamamai populations are overall well interconnected with a relatively high gene flow. Nevertheless, STRUCTURE analysis using microsatellite data and mtDNA sequences coincidently indicate the presence of two genetic pools in many populations.

Dendrolimus superans (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) has long been acknowledged to present in South Korea under the circumstance of a substantial change in species names of Dendrolimus. In the present study, we found that specimens of D. superans collected from South Korea were D. sibiricus, rather than D. superans. Comparison of Korean specimens to the D. superans from Japan and the D. sibiricus from Russia in terms of wing morphology, female and male genitalia, a partial COI gene sequence, and a partial internal spacer sequence 2 (ITS2) consistently supported the presence of D. sibiricus in South Korea. Phylogenetic analyses using concatenated sequences of COI and ITS2 from available individuals of D. sibiricus and D. superans both by Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods the Korea samples to be D. sibiricus.

Despite of a substantial effort, the phylogeny of Lepidoptera still has unstable taxa and unresolved relationships particularly form Apoditrysia to Ditrysia (e.g. phylogenetic position and familial relationships of Gelechioidea, the monophylies of Tineoidea and Zygaenoidea and so on). We performed phylogenetic analysis using ~13,000-bp length of mitogenome sequences form 50 species (with seven species in two superfamilies form this study) representing 13 superfamilies to improve the lepidopteran phylogeny from Apoditrysia to Ditrysia. A close relationship of Gelechioidea to Obtectomera than to apoditrysian taxa was noteworthy, although the nodal support is very weak (ML, 23%; BI, BPP = 0.94). Monophyly of Zygaenoidea without Epipyropidae (Epipomponia nawai) was also noteworthy in spite of weak nodal support (ML, 64%; BI, 1.0). Scrutinized analysis is currently underway.

We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Vespa velutina nigrithorax and V. ducalis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). The genomes were 16,475-bp and 15,779-bp long and contained typical sets of genes. The V. velutina and V. ducalis A+T-rich region was 132-bp long and 166-bp long and was the shortest of all sequenced Vespoidea genomes. Start and stop codons in several Vespa species—including V. velutina and V. ducalis—were diversified, despite these species belonging to the same genus. In comparison with the ancestral mitogenomes, Vespa mitogenomes showed substantial gene rearrangement; however, we detected no gene rearrangement among Vespa species. We conducted phylogenetic reconstruction based on concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs and two rRNAs in available species of Vespoidea—22 species in six subfamilies in two families (Vespidae and Formicidae). The Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood (ML) methods revealed that each family formed strong monophyletic groups.

The number of reported mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from the monotypic Lasiocampoidea has been limited until recently. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitogenome of the lappet moth, Kunugia undans (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae), and compared it to those of other lasiocampid species and macroheteroceran superfamilies (59 species in six superfamilies). The 15,570-bp long K. undans genome had the typical set of genes found in animal mitogenomes, with the exception of one additional trnR that are located between trnA and trnN loci. Considering that the two trnR copies are located in tandem with proper secondary structures and identical anticodons, a gene duplication event might be responsible for the presence of the two tRNAs. In summary, the general mitogenome characteristics of Lasiocampoidea did not differ greatly from the remaining macroheteroceran superfamilies, but it did exhibit some unique features.

The spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), is an economically damaging pest that feeds on most thin-skinned fruits. In this study, we sequenced portions of the mitochondrial (mt) COI and ND4 genes from a total of 195 individuals collected mainly from Korea. A total of 139 haplotypes were obtained from the concatenated COI and ND4 sequences. A dataset combining GenBank sequences with our own data identified a total of 94 worldwide COI haplotypes with a maximum sequence divergence of 5.433% (32 bp). A rough estimate of genetic diversity in each country showed higher diversity in ancestral distributional ranges, but the invasion over Asian countries seems to have been substantial because haplotype diversity was only 2.35-3.97-fold lower in the USA, Canada, and Italy than that in the populations ancestral ranges.

Lepidopteran pests monitoring in adult stage was generally performed using delta or corn typed trap including rubber septa impregnated sex pheromone (lure). Sometimes, unfortunately trapped samples were severly damaged because of biotic and/or abiotic environments such as micro-organism, predator and rain, sticky material, respectively. In our case, we monitored potato tuber moth, PTM, Phthorimaea operculella distribution during 2009~2012 in Korea. However, we encountered unexpected problem, another species can be trapped in species specific sex pheromone trap. Therefore, species confirmation was needed in trapped samples. Here we developed confirmation method by direct PCR (without DNA extraction) or sequencing methods which trapped samples that cannot identified by morphologically. We designed multi-plex PCR universal primers and species specific primers in rRNA region because to check the success of PCR and species identification. This direct PCR method can be applied in other species confirmation which monitored using pheromone trap.

Attacin is a well-studied glycine-rich antibacterial protein in insect immune response, which has limitary antibacterial effect to some Gram-negative bacteria. A cDNA encoding the attacin gene was screened and isolated from the immunized larvae of the swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus. The complete P. xuthus attacin cDNA is 949 nucleotides encoding a 250 amino acid precursor that contains a putative 18-residue signal peptide, a common 42-residue propeptide sequence and a presumed 190-residue mature protein with a theoretical mass of 19904.01 and a pI of 9.13. The putative mature protein of P. xuthus attacin showed 48%~52% and 24%~30% identity in amino acid sequences with that of lepidopteran and dipteran insects, respectively. The attacin transcript was induced at significant level after injection with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Recombinant attacin was highly expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells by fusing with an N-terminal S-tag/thrombin cleavage site configuration protein to avoid the cell death during induction. The expressed fusion protein was purified by Ni-NTA immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). After desalting and cleavage with thrombin, the recombinant attacin was released and showed considerably antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, E. coli ML 35. Our results proved that this protein family with a potent antibacterial activity may play a role in the immune response of butterflies.

Exposure to ionizing radiation is regarded as a kind of abiotic stresses that can change the expression of genes in living organisms. This study aimed on investigating the variations in gene expressions induced by two different types of irradiations with different doses, which were low linear energy transfer (LET) gamma rays (100, 200, and 400 Gy) and high LET ion-beams (20, 40, and 80 Gy) on rice. RNA sequencing was carried out using the Illumina HiSeq-2500 platform. The average amount of reads were 4.8 Gb per individual, and 5 to 8% of the reads were removed after quality control. More than 90% of the RNA-seq reads were mapped to the rice reference genome sequence (IRGSP-1.0). A total of 247 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by comparison of the gene expression levels between the wildtype and the irradiated individuals. The 247 DEGs were divided into five modules and 27 intra-modular hub genes were found using the weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) method. The MEturquiose module had the most number of genes with 75 related to carbohydrate and small molecule metabolic processes. The co-expression network reconstructed using ARACNE (algorithm for reconstruction of accurate cellular networks) showed specific up- or down-regulation of the genes in each module according to the types and doses of radiation. This study will contribute to understanding the gene expression responses to ionizing irradiation.