The methylationsensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) technique is an amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) based method for detection of DNA methylation. It represents a reliable technique for the detection of cytosine methylation alterations at the site of CCGG in a genomewide perspective. MSAP has been extensively applied in plants and some animals

but no application in insects has been reported yet. The method was improved from DNA extraction

the amount of genomic DNA used for restriction enzyme digestion

time for enzyme digestions and ligation of adapters

and electrophoresis imaging method. And the method was applied successfully in Sogatella furcifera (Horvath)

an important rice pest in China. It will provide some references and guiding values for the study of genome DNA methylation in other insects by using this method in the future. By comparing MSAP maps between male and female or between long wing and short wing of S. furcifera

it was found that there were obvious differences in DNA methylation patterns. This indicates that DNA methylation may be involved in gender and wings type differentiation.