Data from: Genetic and physiological data suggest demographic and adaptive responses in complex interactions between populations of figs (Ficus pumila) and their pollinating wasps (Wiebesia pumilae)

To study interactions between host figs and their pollinating wasps and
the influence of climatic change on their genetic structures, we sequenced
cytoplasmic and nuclear genes and genotyped nuclear microsatellite loci
from two varieties of Ficus pumila, the widespread creeping fig and
endemic jelly fig, and from their pollinating wasps, Wiebesia pumilae,
found in Taiwan and on nearby offshore islands. Great divergence in the
mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) with no genetic
admixture in nuclear markers indicated that creeping- and jelly-fig wasps
are genetically distinct. Compared with creeping-fig wasps, jelly-fig
wasps also showed better resistance under cold (20 °C) than warm (25 and
30 °C) conditions in a survival test, indicating their adaptation to a
cold environment, which may have facilitated population expansion during
the ice age as shown by a nuclear intron and 10 microsatellite loci. An
excess of amino acid divergence and a pattern of too many rare mtCOI
variants of jelly-fig wasps as revealed by computer simulations and
neutrality tests implied the effect of positive selection, which we
hypothesize was associated with the cold-adaptation process. Chloroplast
DNA of the two fig plants was completely segregated, with signs of genetic
admixture in nuclear markers. As creeping- and jelly-fig wasps can
pollinate creeping figs, occasional gene flow between the two figs is thus
possible. Therefore, it is suggested that pollinating wasps may be playing
an active role in driving introgression between different types of host
fig.