Dataset Information

Patterns of host use by brood parasitic Maculinea butterflies across Europe.

ABSTRACT: The range of hosts exploited by a parasite is determined by several factors, including host availability, infectivity and exploitability. Each of these can be the target of natural selection on both host and parasite, which will determine the local outcome of interactions, and potentially lead to coevolution. However, geographical variation in host use and specificity has rarely been investigated. Maculinea (= Phengaris) butterflies are brood parasites of Myrmica ants that are patchily distributed across the Palæarctic and have been studied extensively in Europe. Here, we review the published records of ant host use by the European Maculinea species, as well as providing new host ant records for more than 100 sites across Europe. This comprehensive survey demonstrates that while all but one of the Myrmica species found on Maculinea sites have been recorded as hosts, the most common is often disproportionately highly exploited. Host sharing and host switching are both relatively common, but there is evidence of specialization at many sites, which varies among Maculinea species. We show that most Maculinea display the features expected for coevolution to occur in a geographic mosaic, which has probably allowed these rare butterflies to persist in Europe. This article is part of the theme issue 'The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern'.

SUBMITTER: Tartally A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6388033 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Patterns of host use by brood parasitic Maculinea butterflies across Europe.

Tartally András A Thomas Jeremy A JA Anton Christian C Balletto Emilio E Barbero Francesca F Bonelli Simona S Bräu Markus M Casacci Luca Pietro LP Csősz Sándor S Czekes Zsolt Z Dolek Matthias M Dziekańska Izabela I Elmes Graham G Fürst Matthias A MA Glinka Uta U Hochberg Michael E ME Höttinger Helmut H Hula Vladimir V Maes Dirk D Munguira Miguel L ML Musche Martin M Nielsen Per Stadel PS Nowicki Piotr P Oliveira Paula S PS Peregovits László L Ritter Sylvia S Schlick-Steiner Birgit C BC Settele Josef J Sielezniew Marcin M Simcox David J DJ Stankiewicz Anna M AM Steiner Florian M FM Švitra Giedrius G Ugelvig Line V LV Van Dyck Hans H Varga Zoltán Z Witek Magdalena M Woyciechowski Michal M Wynhoff Irma I Nash David R DR

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 20190401 1769

The range of hosts exploited by a parasite is determined by several factors, including host availability, infectivity and exploitability. Each of these can be the target of natural selection on both host and parasite, which will determine the local outcome of interactions, and potentially lead to coevolution. However, geographical variation in host use and specificity has rarely been investigated. Maculinea (= Phengaris) butterflies are brood parasites of Myrmica ants that are patchily distribut ...[more]

PMID: 30967080

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Project description:BackgroundNon-long terminal repeat (non-LTR) retrotransposons are mobile genetic elements that propagate themselves by reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate. Non-LTR retrotransposons are known to evolve mainly via vertical transmission and random loss. Horizontal transmission is believed to be a very rare event in non-LTR retrotransposons. Our knowledge of distribution and diversity of insect non-LTR retrotransposons is limited to a few species - mainly model organisms such as dipteran genera Drosophila, Anopheles, and Aedes. However, diversity of non-LTR retroelements in arthropods seems to be much richer. The present study extends the analysis of non-LTR retroelements to CR1 clade from four butterfly species of genus Maculinea (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae).The lycaenid genus Maculinea, the object of interest for evolutionary biologists and also a model group for European biodiversity studies, possesses a unique, specialized myrmecophilous lifestyle at larval stage. Their caterpillars, after three weeks of phytophagous life on specific food plants drop to the ground where they are adopted to the ant nest by Myrmica foraging workers.ResultsWe found that the genome of Maculinea butterflies contains multiple CR1 lineages of non-LTR retrotransposons, including those from MacCR1A, MacCR1B and T1Q families. A comparative analysis of RT nucleotide sequences demonstrated an extremely high similarity among elements both in interspecific and intraspecific comparisons. CR1A-like elements were found only in family Lycaenidae. In contrast, MacCR1B lineage clones were extremely similar to CR1B non-LTR retrotransposons from Bombycidae moths: silkworm Bombyx mori and Oberthueria caeca.ConclusionThe degree of coding sequence similarity of the studied elements, their discontinuous distribution, and results of divergence-versus-age analysis make it highly unlikely that these sequences diverged at the same time as their host taxa. The only reasonable alternative explanation is horizontal transfer. In addition, phylogenetic markers for population analysis of Maculinea could be developed based on the described non-LTR retrotransposons.

Dataset Information

Patterns of host use by brood parasitic Maculinea butterflies across Europe.

Publications

Patterns of host use by brood parasitic Maculinea butterflies across Europe.

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