Using multispecies evolutionary history to test hypotheses of community assembly
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Inst of Evolutionary Biology
Abstract
The world's biodiversity is dominated by complex communities of animals (particularly insects) and plants. Though we know something of how these communities function (for example, who eats whom), we know very little about how they come to be: do they consist of species that have interacted for millions of years, or do they consist instead of sets of species that have only very recently come together from different sources? Which of these is true is important for the way in which we interpret adaptations in predators and prey. Long associations mean that predators and prey may have evolved very specific responses to each other - in a form of evolution commonly termed an 'arms race'. In contrast, if communities are only recently put together, the biology of component species is unlikely to have been shaped by the other community members. Which of these is true is also likely to be important in conservation: if species share a long evolutionary history, then the interactions they share (such as a predator eating its prey, or a pollinator's relationship with a plant) are also ancient, special, and should be preserved. In contrast, if communities are commonly assembled over short periods (on an evolutionary timescale) from available sets of species, then it shows that community interactions can also evolve relatively quickly, and that communities are evolutionarily young. If communities are young, it also means that they are vulnerable to invasion by new species - requiring careful management of species that humankind introduces either intentionally (as in biocontrol agents) or unintentionally. In this project, we will work out which of these scenarios is more true for one particular community - the insects inhabiting galls on oaks and other plants. These communities are easy to study, and match in many important respects other insect-plant communities. We will use DNA sequences to work out where different types of predators and prey in the gall communities originated and then spread around the world. If species in communities have a long shared history, then we expect each species to originate in the same place and spread in the same way. In contrast, if predators have 'latched on' to their prey at a range of points through evolutionary time, then we expect different community members to have different origins and patterns of range expansion. We will look at the question at two levels - globally (across North America, Asia and Europe), and regionally (for the Western palaearctic, which includes Europe and Asia Minor). An important component of our project is assessing the importance of regions just east of Europe (particularly Turkey) for European conservation. Many 'European' species (such as the 'English oak', and house mouse) are found far to the east of Europe, but the conservation value of eastern regions is not usually considered. Initial information for the oak gallwasp system we are studying suggests that oaks and gallwasps both diversified there before spreading into Europe. We will look at the predators in oak galls to see if this 'out of the east' pattern is in fact true for the whole community.
Publications
Ács Z
(2010)
Phylogeny and DNA barcoding of inquiline oak gallwasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) of the Western Palaearctic.
in Molecular phylogenetics and evolution
Weinert LA
(2009)
Evolution and diversity of Rickettsia bacteria.
in BMC biology
Van Der Ham R
(2007)
Plant remains from the Kreftenheye Formation (Eemian) at Raalte, The Netherlands
in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
Tang C
(2020)
A New Cycloneuroterus Melika & Tang Oak Gallwasp Species (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini) Associated with Lithocarpus (Fagaceae) from Taiwan
in Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
Tang C
(2016)
A new Plagiotrochus Mayr oak gall wasp species from Taiwan (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini)
in Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology
Stone GN
(2008)
Fossil oak galls preserve ancient multitrophic interactions.
in Proceedings. Biological sciences
Stone GN
(2008)
Evidence for widespread cryptic sexual generations in apparently purely asexual Andricus gallwasps.
in Molecular ecology
Stone GN
(2009)
Extreme host plant conservatism during at least 20 million years of host plant pursuit by oak gallwasps.
in Evolution; international journal of organic evolution
Stone GN
(2017)
Tournament ABC analysis of the western Palaearctic population history of an oak gall wasp, Synergus umbraculus.
in Molecular ecology
Stone GN
(2012)
Reconstructing community assembly in time and space reveals enemy escape in a Western Palearctic insect community.
in Current biology : CB
Stone GN
(2011)
Controlling for non-independence in comparative analysis of patterns across populations within species.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
SCHÖNROGGE K
(2011)
Range expansion and enemy recruitment by eight alien gall wasp species in Britain
in Insect Conservation and Diversity
Robinson JD
(2014)
ABC inference of multi-population divergence with admixture from unphased population genomic data.
in Molecular ecology
PÉNZES Z
(2009)
Systematic re-appraisal of the gall-usurping wasp genus Synophrus Hartig, 1843 (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini)
in Systematic Entomology
Nicholls JA
(2010)
Community impacts of anthropogenic disturbance: natural enemies exploit multiple routes in pursuit of invading herbivore hosts.
in BMC evolutionary biology
Nicholls JA
(2017)
Sweet Tetra-Trophic Interactions: Multiple Evolution of Nectar Secretion, a Defensive Extended Phenotype in Cynipid Gall Wasps.
in The American naturalist
Nicholls JA
(2018)
Partitioning of herbivore hosts across time and food plants promotes diversification in the Megastigmus dorsalis oak gall parasitoid complex.
in Ecology and evolution
Nicholls JA
(2012)
Mitochondrial barcodes are diagnostic of shared refugia but not species in hybridizing oak gallwasps.
in Molecular ecology
Nicholls JA
(2018)
A new genus of oak gallwasp, Protobalandricus Melika, Nicholls Stone (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini) from California.
in Zootaxa
Nicholls JA
(2010)
Concordant phylogeography and cryptic speciation in two Western Palaearctic oak gall parasitoid species complexes.
in Molecular ecology
Miko I
(2016)
New Dryocosmus Giraud species associated with Cyclobalanopsis and non-Quercus host plants from the Eastern Palaearctic (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini)
in Journal of Hymenoptera Research
Melika G
(2021)
New species of Nearctic oak gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae, Cynipini).
in Zootaxa
Lohse K
(2012)
A likelihood-based comparison of population histories in a parasitoid guild
in Molecular Ecology
Lohse K
(2011)
Developing EPIC markers for chalcidoid Hymenoptera from EST and genomic data.
in Molecular ecology resources
Lohse K
(2011)
Inferring the colonization of a mountain range--refugia vs. nunatak survival in high alpine ground beetles.
in Molecular ecology
KAARTINEN R
(2010)
Revealing secret liaisons: DNA barcoding changes our understanding of food webs
in Ecological Entomology
Hearn J
(2014)
Likelihood-based inference of population history from low-coverage de novo genome assemblies.
in Molecular ecology
Gómez J
(2013)
On the morphology of the terminal-instar larvae of some European species of Sycophila (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) parasitoids of gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)
in Journal of Natural History
Gibbs M
(2011)
Torymus sinensis: a viable management option for the biological control of Dryocosmus kuriphilus in Europe?
in BioControl
Fang Z
(2020)
A New Genus of Oak Gallwasp, Heocynips Fang, Nieves-Aldrey, and Melika (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini), from China
in Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
Fang Z
(2020)
Lithosaphonecrus edurus Fang, Melika, and Tang, a New Cynipid Inquiline Species (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini) from Sichuan, China
in Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
BIHARI P
(2011)
Western Palaearctic phylogeography of an inquiline oak gall wasp, Synergus umbraculus PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF AN INQUILINE GALL WASP
in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Bailey R
(2009)
Host niches and defensive extended phenotypes structure parasitoid wasp communities.
in PLoS biology
Description | We are developing tools that allow inference of the history of populations of organisms from genome sequence data. the novelty lies in our ability to infer history from data for small numbers of individuals, and our focus on natural communities of insects species rather than on 'model species', such as humankind. |
Exploitation Route | We hope to develop web based tools for our methodologies. The methodology is widely applicable to answering questions about population history and dispersal. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment |
Description | To date, our findings have been used to publish scientific research papers only. These address the use of population genetic data to reconstruct the history of migrations of species in natural biological communities. |
First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
Sector | Environment |