Data from: Rapid adaptive evolution of photoperiodic response during invasion and range expansion across a climatic gradient

Understanding the mechanisms of adaptation to spatiotemporal environmental variation is a fundamental goal of evolutionary biology. This issue also has important implications for anticipating biological responses to contemporary climate warming and determining the processes by which invasive species are able to spread rapidly across broad geographic ranges. Here, we compare data from a historical study of latitudinal variation in photoperiodic response among Japanese and U.S. populations of the invasive Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus with contemporary data obtained using comparable methods. Our results demonstrated rapid adaptive evolution of the photoperiodic response during invasion and range expansion across ∼15° of latitude in the United States. In contrast to the photoperiodic response, size-based morphological traits implicated in climatic adaptation in a wide range of other insects did not show evidence of adaptive variation in Ae. albopictus across either the U.S. (invasive) or Japanese (native) range. These results show that photoperiodism has been an important adaptation to climatic variation across the U.S. range of Ae. albopictus and, in conjunction with previous studies, strongly implicate the photoperiodic control of seasonal development as a critical evolutionary response to ongoing contemporary climate change. These results also emphasize that photoperiodism warrants increased attention in studies of the evolution of invasive species.

解析生物对时空环境变异的适应机制，是进化生物学（evolutionary biology）的核心研究目标之一。该研究议题对于预判生物对当代气候变暖的响应、阐明入侵物种快速扩散至广阔地理范围的内在过程，均具有重要的理论与实践意义。本研究将一项针对日本与美国境内入侵性亚洲虎蚊（Aedes albopictus）种群光周期反应（photoperiodic response）纬度变异的历史研究数据，与采用同类实验方法获取的当代数据进行对比分析。研究结果显示，在美国约15个纬度的入侵与分布区扩张过程中，亚洲虎蚊的光周期反应发生了快速适应性进化。与光周期反应不同，在其他诸多昆虫中被证实与气候适应相关的体型相关形态性状，无论是在白纹伊蚊的美国入侵分布区还是日本原生分布区中，均未体现出适应性变异的迹象。本研究结果表明，光周期现象是白纹伊蚊在美国分布区内适应气候变异的关键适应性策略；结合既往研究成果，强烈提示光周期调控季节发育是生物应对当前持续全球气候变化的重要进化响应。此外，本研究结果还强调，在入侵物种的进化生物学研究领域，应进一步提升对光周期相关性状的关注程度。