Hybridization and the Spread of the Apple Maggot Fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae), in the Northwestern United States

Authors

Tracy Arcella
Glen R. Hood
Thomas H.Q. Powell
Sheina B. Sim
Wee L. Yee
Dietmar Schwarz, Western Washington UniversityFollow
Scott P. Egan
Robert B. Goughnour
James J. Smith
Jeffery L. Feder

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2015

Keywords

Introgression, Microsatellites, Rhagoletis zephyria, Snowberries

Abstract

Hybridization may be an important process interjecting variation into insect populations enabling host plant shifts and the origin of new economic pests. Here, we examine whether hybridization between the native snowberry-infesting fruit fly Rhagoletis zephyria (Snow) and the introduced quarantine pest R. pomonella (Walsh) is occurring and may aid the spread of the latter into more arid commercial apple-growing regions of central Washington state, USA. Results for 19 microsatellites implied hybridization occurring at a rate of 1.44% per generation between the species. However, there was no evidence for increased hybridization in central Washington. Allele frequencies for seven microsatellites in R. pomonella were more ‘R. zephyria-like’ in central Washington, suggesting that genes conferring resistance to desiccation may be adaptively introgressing from R. zephyria. However, in only one case was the putatively introgressing allele from R. zephyria not found in R. pomonella in the eastern USA. Thus, many of the alleles changing in frequency may have been prestanding in the introduced R. pomonella population. The dynamics of hybridization are therefore complex and nuanced for R. pomonella, with various causes and factors, including introgression for a portion, but not all of the genome, potentially contributing to the pest insect's spread.

Publication Title

Evolutionary Applications

Volume

8

Issue

8

First Page

834

Last Page

846

Required Publisher's Statement

© 2015 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

DOI: 10.1111/eva.12298

Comments

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Recommended Citation

Arcella, T., Hood, G. R., Powell, T. H. Q., Sim, S. B., Yee, W. L., Schwarz, D., Egan, S. P., Goughnour, R. B., Smith, J. J. and Feder, J. L. (2015), Hybridization and the spread of the apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae), in the northwestern United States. Evol Appl, 8: 834–846. doi:10.1111/eva.12298

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Apple maggot--Hybridization--Washington (State); Insect pests--Control--Washington (State); Apples--Diseases and pests--Washington (State)

Geographic Coverage

Washington (State)

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf