| Title: | Evidence for gene flow between two sympatric mealybug species (Insecta; Coccoidea; Pseudococcidae) |
| Author(s): | Kol-Maimon H; Ghanim M; Franco JC; Mendel Z; |
| Address: | "Department of Entomology, Volcani Center (ARO), Bet Dagan, Israel. Departamento de Ciencias e Engenharia de Biossistemas/Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal" |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0088433 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1932-6203 (Electronic) 1932-6203 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Occurrence of inter-species hybrids in natural populations might be evidence of gene flow between species. In the present study we found evidence of gene flow between two sympatric, genetically related scale insect species--the citrus mealybug Planococcus citri (Risso) and the vine mealybug Planococcus ficus (Signoret). These species can be distinguished by morphological, behavioral, and molecular traits. We employed the sex pheromones of the two respective species to study their different patterns of male attraction. We also used nuclear ITS2 (internal transcribed spacer 2) and mitochondrial COI (Cytochrome c oxidase sub unit 1) DNA sequences to characterize populations of the two species, in order to demonstrate the outcome of a possible gene flow between feral populations of the two species. Our results showed attraction to P. ficus pheromones of all tested populations of P. citri males but not vice versa. Furthermore, ITS2 sequences revealed the presence of 'hybrid females' among P. citri populations but not among those of P. ficus. 'hybrid females' from P. citri populations identified as P. citri females according to COI sequences. We offer two hypotheses for these results. 1) The occurrence of phenotypic and genotypic traits of P. ficus in P. citri populations may be attributed to both ancient and contemporary gene flow between their populations; and 2) we cannot rule out that an ancient sympatric speciation by which P. ficus emerged from P. citri might have led to the present situation of shared traits between these species. In light of these findings we also discuss the origin of the studied species and the importance of the pherotype phenomenon as a tool with which to study genetic relationships between congener scale insects" |
| Keywords: | "Animals DNA, Intergenic/genetics Electron Transport Complex IV/genetics Female *Gene Flow Genotype Hemiptera/*genetics/*physiology Male Mitochondria/enzymology Phenotype Sequence Analysis, DNA Sex Attractants/*genetics Sexual Behavior, Animal Species Spec;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineKol-Maimon, Hofit Ghanim, Murad Franco, Jose Carlos Mendel, Zvi eng 2014/02/14 PLoS One. 2014 Feb 11; 9(2):e88433. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088433. eCollection 2014" |
