Jeffrey W. Lee

Insectarium, Saunders Institute at Fresno, CA, USA
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Entomology, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/me.2013.04.0001
Received: 24 Jan., 2013    Accepted: 28 Jan., 2013    Published: 19 Feb., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Lee J.W., 2013, A Mini-Review: Molecular Profiles of Diamondback Moth (Plutella xylostella), Molecular Entomology, Vol.4, No.1 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/me.2013.04.0001)

Plutella xylostella (L.), also known as diamondback moth (DBM), is deemed to be a basal and primitive as well as highly heterozygous insect in the Plutellidae Family of Lepidoptera Order. Diamondback moth diverged about 124 million years ago from two other lepidopterans species, B. mori and D. plexippus. Diamondback moth has 31 chromosomes (n = 31) with a genome size of roughly 343Mb. Its genome consists of 18 071 protein-coding genes 781 non-coding RNAs, and repetitive sequences that represent 33.97% of the genome. In its genome, 1 412 genes are found to be unique to Diamondback moth. There are abundant DNA variations present in P. xylostella’s genome in the forms of SNPs, InDels, structural variations and complex segmental duplication patterns. DMB is able to adapt to a variety of environmental challenges as a result of preferential expression of a set of genes at the larval stage that contributes to odorant chemoreception, food digestion, metabolic detoxification, and in particular, a biological detoxification pathway in long-term evolution that is able to detoxify many chemicals including Bt toxins, thus making it a notorious lepidopteran pests.

Diamondback moth (DBM); Plutella xylostella (L.); Genome; Molecular variation; Molecular evolution; Molecular adaptation