Kjellberg Finn, Proffit Magali
CEFE, UMR 5175, CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE, Montpellier, France.
Mol Ecol. 2016 Feb;25(4):843-5. doi: 10.1111/mec.13533.
The food webs consisting of plants, herbivorous insects and their insect parasitoids are a major component of terrestrial biodiversity. They play a central role in the functioning of all terrestrial ecosystems, and the number of species involved is mind-blowing (Nyman et al. 2015). Nevertheless, our understanding of the evolutionary and ecological determinants of their diversity is still in its infancy. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Sutton et al. (2016) open a window into the comparative analysis of spatial genetic structuring in a set of comparable multitrophic models, involving highly species-specific interactions: figs and fig wasps. This is the first study to compare genetic structure using population genetics tools in a fig-pollinating wasp (Pleistodontes imperialis sp1) and its main parasitoid (Sycoscapter sp.A). The fig-pollinating wasp has a discontinuous spatial distribution that correlates with genetic differentiation, while the parasitoid bridges the discontinuity by parasitizing other pollinator species on the same host fig tree and presents basically no spatial genetic structure. The full implications of these results for our general understanding of plant-herbivorous insect-insect parasitoids diversification become apparent when envisioned within the framework of recent advances in fig and fig wasp biology.
由植物、食草昆虫及其昆虫寄生蜂组成的食物网是陆地生物多样性的主要组成部分。它们在所有陆地生态系统的功能中发挥着核心作用，涉及的物种数量多得惊人（尼曼等人，2015年）。然而，我们对其多样性的进化和生态决定因素的理解仍处于起步阶段。在本期《分子生态学》中，萨顿等人（2016年）打开了一扇窗，对一组具有高度物种特异性相互作用的可比多营养模型——榕树和榕小蜂——的空间遗传结构进行了比较分析。这是第一项使用群体遗传学工具比较传粉榕小蜂（帝王榕小蜂物种1）及其主要寄生蜂（榕小蜂物种A）遗传结构的研究。传粉榕小蜂具有与遗传分化相关的不连续空间分布，而寄生蜂通过寄生同一寄主榕树上的其他传粉者物种弥合了这种不连续性，并且基本上没有空间遗传结构。当在榕树和榕小蜂生物学最新进展的框架内设想时，这些结果对我们对植物 - 食草昆虫 - 昆虫寄生蜂多样化的总体理解的全部意义就变得显而易见了。
