Amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of different geographic populations of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (Lepidoptera : Lymantriidae)

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar Linnaeus, is one of the most serious insec t pests of palaearctic and nearctic hardwood forests. We used amplified fra gment length polymorphism (AFLP) to detect genetic diversity within and amo ng gypsy moth populations. Five AFLP primer combinations were used on 98 L. dispar samples from different parts of Europe, Asia and North America, det ecting a total of 481 polymorphic and 58 monomorphic fragments. Genetic sim ilarities based on these data were calculated and cluster analysis was perf ormed to graphically display groupings between isolates. Lymantria dispar i ndividuals from close geographical areas of Europe were mostly grouped toge ther in cluster analysis resulting in the formation of subgroups correspond ing to the origin of the samples. Supporting this observation, clustering o f individuals from 22 neighbouring populations in southern Germany agreed w ell with the region they originated from. Thus, AFLP analysis revealed the existence of a certain degree of genetic variability between European gypsy moth populations that could be explained by the accumulation of polymorphi sms resulting from both historical population bottlenecks and the adaptatio n to different environmental conditions. The results of this study therefor e demonstrate that AFLP analysis is a sensitive technique for distinguishin g genotypes from different geographic origins as well as from neighbouring local populations and provides sufficient molecular markers for future char acterization of the gypsy moth genome.