Ongoing ecological speciation in Cotesia sesamiae, a biological control agent of cereal stem borers

Evolutionary Applications

Laure Kaiser¹  Bruno Pierre Le Ru¹  Ferial Kaoula¹  Corentin Paillusson²  Claire Capdevielle-Dulac¹  Julius Ochieng Obonyo³  Elisabeth A. Herniou²  Severine Jancek²  Antoine Branca¹  Paul-André Calatayud¹  Jean-François Silvain¹ 

[1] Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement et Ecologie, UMR CNRS-Univ. Paris-Sud-IRD, Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France;Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l'Insecte, CNRS UMR 7261, Université François-Rabelais, UFR Sciences et Techniques, Tours, France;icipe: African Insect Science for Food and Health, Nairobi, Kenya

关键词: adaptation;    Africa;    cryptic species;    ecological niche;    evolution;    geographic distribution;    host range;    Hymenoptera;    parasitic wasp;    phylogeny;    reproductive isolation;    virulence;   

DOI  :  10.1111/eva.12260

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

To develop efficient and safe biological control, we need to reliably identify natural enemy species, determine their host range, and understand the mechanisms that drive host range evolution. We investigated these points in Cotesia sesamiae, an African parasitic wasp of cereal stem borers. Phylogenetic analyses of 74 individual wasps, based on six mitochondrial and nuclear genes, revealed three lineages. We then investigated the ecological status (host plant and host insect ranges in the field, and host insect suitability tests) and the biological status (cross-mating tests) of the three lineages. We found that one highly supported lineage showed all the hallmarks of a cryptic species. It is associated with one host insect, Sesamia nonagrioides, and is reproductively isolated from the other two lineages by pre- and postmating barriers. The other two lineages had a more variable phylogenetic support, depending on the set of genes; they exhibited an overlapping and diversified range of host species and are not reproductively isolated from one another. We discuss the ecological conditions and mechanisms that likely generated this ongoing speciation and the relevance of this new specialist taxon in the genus Cotesia for biological control.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.