Comparative transcriptomics of Agrilus planipennis feeding on North American and Asian ash.

Biological invasions impose serious consequences on the ecology and economy of the introduced geographical regions. More than 1,000 alien species have established in North America. Emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis, is the most recent devastating invaders of North America and Russia. Its expansion in invaded regions is proposed due to the “defense free space” and preadaptation mechanisms to colonize evolutionarily-naïve, poorly-defended host plants. Our study tested this hypothesis by studying a comparative physiology of EAB feeding on native and coevolved tree hosts via an integrated transcriptomics and metabolomics approach. We sequenced the midgut transcriptome of early third instar larvae feeding on these two hosts.