Assessment of the ecologically dependent post-zygotic isolation between Anopheles coluzzii and Anopheles gambiae.

Within the Anopheles gambiae complex, the sibling species An. coluzzii and An. gambiae are undergoing sympatric speciation. These species are characterized by rare hybrids in most of their geographical distribution. A strong assortative mating mediated by spatial swarm segregation has been shown whereas no intrinsic post-zygotic barriers have been found in laboratory conditions. To test the role of the hybridisation in reproductive isolation in natural populations transplant experiment are therefore needed to establish the significance of post-zygotic barriers. Previous studies indicated that predation is one of the major forces driving ecological divergence between An. gambiae and An. coluzzii. Here we extended these studies to their hybrids. Parental species and their F1 hybrids from reciprocal crosses were generated by the forced-mating technique as follows: female An. coluzzii × male An. coluzzii; female An. coluzzii × male An. gambiae; female An. gambiae × male An. coluzzii and female An. gambiae × Male An. gambiae. First instar larvae of each group from the crossing (here after An. coluzzii, Hybrid COL/GAM, Hybrid GAM/COL and An. gambiae, respectively) were transplanted in a field experiment with predation effect. Emergence success, development time of larvae and body size of the newly emerging adults were estimated as fitness components and then compared between parental species and F1 hybrids in absence and in presence of predators. Our findings confirm that An. coluzzii had higher fitness than An. gambiae in presence of predators versus in absence of predators. Moreover, the fitness of the F1 hybrid COL/GAM whose female parent was An. coluzzii matched that of An. coluzzii while that of the F1 reciprocal hybrid GAM/COL was similar to An. gambiae.