Adaptive divergence and post-zygotic barriers to gene flow between sympatric populations of a herbivorous mite.

ABSTRACT: Plant-herbivore interactions promote the generation and maintenance of both plant and herbivore biodiversity. The antagonistic interactions between plants and herbivores lead to host race formation: the evolution of herbivore types specializing on different plant species, with restricted gene flow between them. Understanding how ecological specialization promotes host race formation usually depends on artificial approaches, using laboratory experiments on populations associated with agricultural crops. However, evidence on how host races are formed and maintained in a natural setting remains scarce. Here, we take a multidisciplinary approach to understand whether populations of the generalist spider mite Tetranychus urticae form host races in nature. We demonstrate that a host race co-occu

SUBMITTER: Villacis-Perez E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8270941 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature