RUI: Collaborative Research: Host Expansion and Speciation Phytophagous Insects: Behavioral, Ecological, and Genetic Factors

生态学家和进化生物学家提出 草食性昆虫的物种形成模型， 关于遗传、行为和生态相互作用的假设 寄主植物。 测试这些假设将导致 增进了对植物与食草动物相互作用的理解。 如果这些 假设在最近的人群中进行了测试， 分歧，或正在分歧的过程中，这些测试可以 帮助确定几种相互竞争的物种形成模型中 是最合理的 关于这些假设的假设将是 在两个群体中测试了一种产胆食草动物， 与寄主植物关系密切。 这些人口是一个 形态上的物种和部分生殖隔离 这是由于宿主对交配和产卵的偏好不同。 遗传和其他机制的知识，负责这些 偏好对于理解草食动物物种形成 发生。 这些问题将通过一系列领域来探讨， 实验花园和温室实验。 结果 宿主相关群体之间的杂交将用于 确定宿主和交配地点的偏好以及 在不同的寄主植物上存活是遗传的。 额外 将进行实验，以确定如何环境和 经验影响产卵和交配地点的选择。 还将进行研究，以确定自然选择如何 不同的寄主植物，可以选择分歧的 人口。 最后，是否存在遗传变异， 一个与宿主相关的种群可以预先适应 转移到一个新的宿主植物将进行调查。 综合起来看， 这些数据将提供对植物生态学的深入了解， 草食动物的相互作用，宿主扩张的进化， 物种形成，以及 农业害虫

Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have proposed speciation models for herbivorous insects that make critical assumptions about genetic, behavior, and ecological interactions with host plants. Testing these assumptions will lead to an improved understanding of plant-herbivore interactions. If these assumptions are tested in populations that have recently diverged, or are in the process of diverging, these tests can help determine which of several competing models of speciation are most plausible. Hypotheses about these assumptions will be tested in two populations of a gall-making herbivore on two closely related host plants. These populations are of one morphological species and are partially reproductively isolated due to differences in host preference for mating and egg-laying. Knowledge of genetic and other mechanisms responsible for these preferences are crucial to understanding how herbivore speciation occurs. These questions will be explored with a series of field, experimental garden, and greenhouse experiments. Results from crosses between the host-associated populations will be used to determine how host-and mating-site preferences and the ability to survive on different host plants is inherited. Additional experiments will be conducted to determine how environment and experience influence oviposition-and mating-site preference. Studies will also be conducted to determine how natural selection differs between host plants that could select for divergence of populations. Finally, whether there is genetic variation within one host-associated population could preadapt the behavior for a shift to a new host plants will be investigated. Taken together, these data will provide insight into the ecology of plant- herbivore interactions, the evolution of host expansions, speciation, as well as the specialized adaptations of agricultural pests.