Resolution of inter and intra-species relationships of the West Indian fruit fly Anastrepha obliqua

Abstract

The West Indian fruit fly, Anastrepha obliqua (Diptera: Tephritidae), is an economically important pest that inhabits areas of South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean with occasional infestations in the southern United States. We examine intra-specific relationships within A. obliqua as well as interspecific relationships to other Anastrepha species using a multi-locus data set comprising nine loci (seven nuclear, two mitochondrial) with 105 operational taxonomic units. The results based on a concatenated set of nuclear loci strongly support the monophyly of A. obliqua and most of the other species previously identified by morphology. A split between Peruvian A. obliqua samples and those from other locations was also identified. These results contrast with prior findings of relationships within A. obliqua based on mitochondrial data, as we found a marked discrepancy between nuclear and mitochondrial loci. These analyses suggest that introgression, particularly between A. obliqua and fraterculus species, may be one explanation for the discrepancy and the high mitochondrial diversity reported for A. obliqua could be the result of incomplete lineage sorting.

Reproductive compatibility among Mexican populations of Anastrepha obliqua: theoretical and management implications

“…In any case, the degree of reproductive compatibility among these types is much greater than the one exhibited by several morphotypes of A. fraterculus (Cáceres et al., ; Devescovi et al., ; Roriz et al., ; Rull et al., ; Selivon et al., ), suggesting, in agreement with Scally et al. (), that at least in Mexico, these types do not represent cryptic species.…”

“…In order to establish or dispel the existence of an A. obliqua cryptic species complex, examining reproductive isolation among South American populations, in particular from Peru, could yield conclusive results. Peruvian A. obliqua appears to be consistently different from samples of other North, Central and South American regions both at the morphological (Castañeda, Selivon, Hernández‐Ortiz, Soto, & Canal, ) and the molecular levels (Ruiz‐Arce et al., ; Scally et al., ). An analysis of reproductive compatibility of the Peruvian type against the Western Mexican and/or Eastern Brazilian types should greatly contribute to clarify the integrity of A. obliqua as a widespread Neotropical species or as a complex potentially composed of two or three cryptic species.…”

“…Nevertheless, more recently Scally et al. (), using a multilocus data set comprising nuclear and mitochondrial loci, suggested that A. obliqua is a monophyletic group. They attributed prior results to possible introgression and interbreeding between different Anastrepha species, which has been shown to be possible in the laboratory (Rull et al., ; Santos, Uramoto, & Matioli, ).…”

“…If mitochondrial types actually represent cryptic species, it could be expected that some form of reproductive isolation has evolved between these taxa. Alternatively, if mitochondrial DNA structural patterns are explained by introgression, this could result in potential changes in mating behaviour and unexpected genetic variation introduced through hybridization with other species (Scally et al., ). If any type of reproductive isolation exists, this will have important practical implications, as different mass rearing strains would be needed for effective area‐wide SIT control.…”

Odorant-binding proteins expression patterns in recently diverged species of Anastrepha fruit flies

“…Fruit flies of the Anastrepha fraterculus group (Diptera: Tephritidae) are some of the most important fruit pests in South America, and exhibit a limited number of morphological and genetic distinguishing characters 1, 2 , possibly because they have diverged recently 3 . Furthermore, interspecific viable hybrids can be obtained in laboratory for some of the crosses between species in the group 2, 4 , suggesting that reproductive isolation is still incipient and incomplete across the genome, which makes this group an interesting model to study the genetic and evolutionary processes involved in speciation events, since very few genes would have had the time to differentiate.…”