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 ...