Genetic architecture of developmental traits in populations of male gypsy moths

Local adaptation, characterisic of increased relative fitness of a population of a particular genoytpe over genotypes originating from other habitats, is an important consequence of natural selection operating on fine spatial scales. In this study, we examine the pattern and process of local adaptation and genetic architecture of developmental traits potentially influencing dispersal capacity (larval mass, pupal duration, and developmental time) in male gypsy moths (Lymantria dispar L.), a particularly damaging, non-native, invasive species. A common garden was established in VA from a local population in addition six other populations from different regions of Virginia, North Carolina, and New York as well as sites in Canada; a fully-factorial design is currently under development. In this talk, I present results from a single reference assembly derived from a single individual, created from a paired-end sequencing run on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument. To this assembly, 192 barcoded individuals, from the common garden (differing in source population) were mapped resulting in an individual-genotype matrix containing thousands of reliable SNPs. Bayesian Variable Selection Regression (BVSR) as well as standard linear mixed-model approaches were employed to explore the relationship between these complex phenotypes and the underlying genetic variation across populations. Understanding the genetic architecture of these characters can serve to inform the control of gypsy moth spread as well as increase understanding of the role of selective forces on invasive species.