smallRNA samples of Spodoptera frugiperda corn variant reared on corn
Small RNA was extracted from 12 L4 larvae using the mirVana miRNA Isolation Kit (Ambion) according to the manufacturer s instructions. Extracted small RNA was quantified using a NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific) and analyzed by PAGE and silverstaining. Small RNA samples from each replicate were used for cDNA library preparation using the TruSeq  Small RNA Sample Prep Kit (Illumina) and sequencing on Illumina HiSeq 2500. A size selection targeting snRNAs in the range of 15 to 40 nt was done. Library preparation and sequencing were performed by the platform MGX-Montpellier GenomiX (Montpellier, France). High throughput sequencing generates small RNA reads of 50 nucleotides in length (single reads). Raw reads were trimmed to remove adapter sequences using cutadapt software (version 1.4.1).