Population structure and cryptic genetic variation in the mango fruit fly, Ceratitis cosyra (Diptera, Tephritidae)

By

Virgilio, Massimiliano
Delatte, Hélène
Beda, Yasinta
Simiand, Christophe
Quilici, Serge
De Meyer, Marc
Mwatawala, Maulid

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

540

Pages

525-538

Subjects

Ceratitis cosyra , cryptic species , fruit flies , microsatellites , Morphology , sympatric speciation

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.540.9618

 

Abstract

The fruit fly Ceratitis cosyra is an important agricultural pest negatively affecting the mango crop production throughout Africa and also feeding on a variety of other wild and cultivated hosts. The occurrence of deeply divergent haplotypes, as well as extensive morphological variability, previously suggested possible cryptic speciation within C. cosyra. Here we provide the first large-scale characterisation of the population structure of C. cosyra with the main objective of verifying cryptic genetic variation. A total of 348 specimens from 13 populations were genotyped at 16 polymorphic microsatellite loci. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) deviations were observed in 40.4% of locus-population combinations and suggested the occurrence of genetic substructuring within populations. Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) showed genetic divergence between the vast majority of vouchers from Burundi and Tanzania (plus a few outliers from other African countries) and all other specimens sampled. Individual Bayesian assignments confirmed the existence of two main genotypic groups also occurring in sympatry. These data provided further support to the hypothesis that C. cosyra might include cryptic species. However, additional integrative taxonomy, possibly combining morphological, ecological and physiological approaches, is required to provide the necessary experimental support to this model.