Evidence for high dispersal ability and mito-nuclear discordance in the small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus

Abstract

Understanding dispersal ability in pest species is critical for both theoretical aspects of evolutionary and population biology and from a practical standpoint, such as implementing effective forecasting systems. The small brown planthopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén), is an economically important pest, but few data exist on its dispersal ability. Here, we used mitochondrial and nuclear markers to elucidate the population genetic structure of SBPH and of the parasitic bacterium Wolbachia throughout temperate and subtropical China. Our results showed that the SBPH populations in China lack significant differences in genetic structure, suggesting extensive gene flow. Multilocus sequence typing revealed that Wolbachia infection was systematic and due to the same strain (wStri) within and across populations. However, the mtDNA haplogroups had a nonrandom distribution across the sampling localities, which correlated to latitudinal and climatic gradients. We explain this mito-nuclear discordance as a result of historical population recolonization or mitochondria adaptation to climate.