Genomic evidence of prevalent hybridization throughout the evolutionary history of the fig-wasp pollination mutualism

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 718
• Main Authors: Wang, Gang, Zhang, Xingtan, Herre, Edward Allen, McKey, Doyle, Machado, Carlos A., Yu, Wen-Bin, Cannon, Charles H., Arnold, Michael L., Pereira, Rodrigo A. S., Ming, Ray, Liu, Yi-Fei, Wang, Yibin, Ma, Dongna, Chen, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02-02-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 45/23; 49/23; 631/158/857; 631/181/2481; 631/181/759; 631/449/2669; Agaonidae; Animals; Biological Evolution; Chloroplasts; Coevolution; Ficus; Ficus - physiology; Genomes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hybridization; Hybridization, Genetic; Mitochondria; multidisciplinary; Mutualism; Phylogeny; Plant reproduction; Pollination; Pollination - physiology; Pollinators; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Switches; Switching; Symbiosis - physiology; Wasps - physiology
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20957-3

Ficus
(figs) and their agaonid wasp pollinators present an ecologically important mutualism that also provides a rich comparative system for studying functional co-diversification throughout its coevolutionary history (~75 million years). We obtained entire nuclear, mitochondrial, and chloroplast genomes for 15 species representing all major clades of
Ficus
. Multiple analyses of these genomic data suggest that hybridization events have occurred throughout
Ficus
evolutionary history. Furthermore, cophylogenetic reconciliation analyses detect significant incongruence among all nuclear, chloroplast, and mitochondrial-based phylogenies, none of which correspond with any published phylogenies of the associated pollinator wasps. These findings are most consistent with frequent host-switching by the pollinators, leading to fig hybridization, even between distantly related clades. Here, we suggest that these pollinator host-switches and fig hybridization events are a dominant feature of fig/wasp coevolutionary history, and by generating novel genomic combinations in the figs have likely contributed to the remarkable diversity exhibited by this mutualism.
Figs and their wasp pollinators are a classic example of coevolution. By assembling and analysing genomes from across the
Ficus
clade, authors suggest that fig hybridization driven by pollinator host-switching in this obligate pollination system, is more common than previously thought.