Range-wide population genomics of the Mexican fruit fly: towards development of pathway analysis tools

Recurrently invading pests provide unique challenges for pest management, but also present opportunities to utilize genomics to understand invasion dynamics and inform regulatory management through pathway analysis. In the southern United States, the Mexican fruit fly Anastrepha ludens is such a pest, and its incursions into Texas and California represent major threats to the agricultural systems of those regions. We developed a draft genome assembly for A. ludens, conducted range-wide population genomics using restriction-site associated DNA sequencing, and then developed and demonstrated a panel of highly-differentiated diagnostic SNPs for source determination of intercepted flies in this system. Using 2,081 genome-wide SNPs, we identified four populations across the range of A. ludens, corresponding to western Mexico, eastern Mexico/Texas, Guatemala/Belize/Honduras, and Costa Rica/Panama, with some intergradation present between clusters, particularly in Central America. From this po...