RNA-seq of Spodoptera frugiperda larvae strains (SfC and SfR) and hybrids (CR and RC)

Spodoptera frugiperda is a major crop pest worldwide. In its native are - the american continent- two mitochondrial strains have been described with different host-plant preferences: the corn strain (or SfC) and the rice strain (SfR). We have previously showed that constitutive differences existed between the strains at the transcriptomic level and were associated to mitochondrial differential expression. To determine whether maternal inheritance was impacting overall expression variations between the strains and eventually their physiological differences, we performed again RNA-seq experiment on the two strains and their F1 reciprocal hybrids (CR and RC) in triplicate, in laboratory conditions when fed on artificial diet and not on plant diet as to avoid the induced challenge by the plant diet on gene expression and focus only on the intrinsic differences.