Genome Size Determination of Several Dendrolimus Species in China

The genome size of three important Dendrolimus species in South China were measured by flow cytometry, with chicken erythrocyte DNA content as control. The results showed that the genome size of D. punctatus was 563.36±7.26 Mb, and the 2C DNA content of female and male were 1.1756±0.0164 and 1.1286±0.0134 pg, respectively. The genome size of D. kikuchii was 719.30±9.70 Mb, and the 2C DNA content of female and male were 1.4492±0.0212 and 1.4428±0.0184 pg, respectively. The genome size of D. houi was 586.82±8.94 Mb, and the 2C DNA content of female and male were 1.244±0.0182 and 1.156±0.0184 pg, respectively. Statistical analysis indicated that the genome size of D. kikuchii was much greater than that of D. houi and D. punctatus, and the genome size of D. houi was a little larger than that of the D. punctatus. For all the three species, the genome size of the female was larger than that of the male. Genome size determinations of these Dendrolimus species can be used as the basis of further comparison among the molecular differentiation of these closely related and sympatric species, and also provide important information for genomic library construction and sequencing in the future.