title: Genome Sizes of Nine Insect Species Determined by Flow Cytometry andk-mer Analysis.
abstract: The flow cytometry method was used to estimate the genome sizes of nine agriculturally important insects, including two coleopterans, five Hemipterans, and two hymenopterans. Among which, the coleopteranLissorhoptrus oryzophilus(Kuschel) had the largest genome of 981 Mb. The average genome size was 504 Mb, suggesting that insects have a moderate-size genome. Compared with the insects in other orders, hymenopterans had small genomes, which were averagely about ~200 Mb. We found that the genome sizes of four insect species were different between male and female, showing the organismal complexity of insects. The largest difference occurred in the coconut leaf beetleBrontispa longissima(Gestro). The male coconut leaf beetle had a 111 Mb larger genome than females, which might be due to the chromosome number difference between the sexes. The results indicated that insect invasiveness was not related to genome size. We also determined the genome sizes of the small brown planthopperLaodelphax striatellus(Fallén) and the parasitic waspMacrocentrus cingulum(Brischke) usingk-mer analysis with Illunima Solexa sequencing data. There were slight differences in the results from the two methods.k-mer analysis indicated that the genome size ofL. striatelluswas 500-700 Mb and that ofM.cingulumwas ~150 Mb. In all, the genome sizes information presented here should be helpful for designing the genome sequencing strategy when necessary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Kejian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guirong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural UniversityNanjing, China; Ministry of Agriculture, Key Lab of Agricultural Entomology and Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang UniversityHangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: flow cytometry; genome size; insect invasiveness; k-mer analysis; sex difference