Whether speciation through ecological specialization occurs has been a thriving research area ever since Mayr (1942) stated this to play a central role. In herbivorous insects, ecological specialization is most likely to happen through host plant differentiation (Funk et al. 2002). Therefore, after Dorothy Pashley had identified two host strains in the Fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, in 1988 (Pashley 1988), researchers have been trying to decipher the evolutionary history of these strains, as this seems to be a model species in which speciation is currently occurring through host plant specialization. Even though FAW is a generalist, feeding on many different host plant species (Pogue 2002) and a devastating pest in many crops, Pashley identified a so-called corn strain and a so-called rice strain in Puerto Rico. Genetically, these strains were found to differ mostly in an esterase, although later studies showed additional genetic differences and markers, mostly in the mitochondrial COI and the nuclear TPI. Recent genomic studies showed that the two strains are overall so genetically different (2% of their genome being different) that these two strains could better be called different species (Kergoat et al. 2012). So far, the most consistent differences between the strains have been their timing of mating activities at night (Schoefl et al. 2009, 2011; Haenniger et al. 2019) and hybrid incompatibilities (Dumas et al. 2015; Kost et al. 2016). Whether and to what extent host plant preference or performance contributed to the differentiation of these sympatrically occurring strains has remained unclear.
In the current study, Orsucci et al. (2020) performed oviposition assays and reciprocal transplant experiments with both strains to measure fitness effects, in combination with a comprehensive RNAseq experiment, in which not only lab reared larvae were analysed, but also field-collected larvae. When testing preference and performance on the two host plants corn and rice, the authors did not find consistent fitness differences between the two strains, with both strains performing less on rice plants, although larvae from the corn strain survived more on corn plants than those from the rice strain. These results mostly confirm findings of a number of investigations over the past 30 years, where no consistent differences on the two host plants were observed (reviewed in Groot et al. 2016). However, the RNAseq experiments did show some striking differences between the two strains, especially in the reciprocally transplanted larvae, where both strains had been reared on rice or on corn plants for one generation: both strains showed transcriptional responses that correspond to their respective putative host plants, i.e. overexpression of genes involved in digestion and metabolic activity, and underexpression of genes involved in detoxification, in the corn strain on corn and in the rice strain on rice. Interestingly, similar sets of genes were found to be overexpressed in the field-collected larvae with which a RNAseq experiment was conducted as well.
The most interesting result of the study performed by Orsucci et al. (2020) is the underexpression in the corn strain of so-called numts, small genomic sequences that corresponded to fragments of the mitochondrial COI and COIII. These two numts were differentially expressed in the two strains in all RNAseq experiments analysed. This result coincides with the fact that the COI is one of the main diagnostic markers to distinguish these two strains. The authors suggestion that a difference in energy production between these two strains may be linked to a shift in host plant preference matches their finding that rice plants seem to be less suitable host plants than corn plants. However, as the lower suitability of rice plants was true for both strains, it remains unclear whether and how this difference could be linked to possible host plant differentiation between the strains. The authors also suggest that COI and potentially other mitochondrial genes may be the original target of selection between these two strains. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that field-collected larvae have frequently been found to have a rice strain mitochondrial genotype and a corn strain nuclear genotype, also in this study, while in the lab (female rice strain x male corn strain) hybrid females (i.e. females with a rice strain mitochondrial genotype and a corn strain nuclear genotype) are behaviorally sterile (Kost et al. 2016). Whether and how selection on mitochondrial genes or on mitonuclear interactions has indeed affected the evolution of these strains in the New world, and will affect the evolution of FAW in newly invaded habitats in the Old world, including Asia and Australia – where, so far, only corn strain and (female rice strain x male corn strain) hybrids have been found (Nagoshi 2019), will be a challenging research question for the coming years.

References

[1] Dumas, P. et al. (2015). Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) host-plant variants: two host strains or two distinct species?. Genetica, 143(3), 305-316. doi: 10.1007/s10709-015-9829-2
[2] Funk, D. J., Filchak, K. E. and Feder J. L. (2002) Herbivorous insects: model systems for the comparative study of speciation ecology. In: Etges W.J., Noor M.A.F. (eds) Genetics of Mate Choice: From Sexual Selection to Sexual Isolation. Contemporary Issues in Genetics and Evolution, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. doi: 10.1007/978-94-010-0265-3_10
[3] Groot, A. T., Unbehend, M., Hänniger, S., Juárez, M. L., Kost, S. and Heckel D. G.(2016) Evolution of reproductive isolation of Spodoptera frugiperda. In Allison, J. and Cardé, R. (eds) Sexual communication in moths. Chapter 20: 291-300.
[4] Hänniger, S. et al. (2017). Genetic basis of allochronic differentiation in the fall armyworm. BMC evolutionary biology, 17(1), 68. doi: 10.1186/s12862-017-0911-5
[5] Kost, S., Heckel, D. G., Yoshido, A., Marec, F., and Groot, A. T. (2016). AZ‐linked sterility locus causes sexual abstinence in hybrid females and facilitates speciation in Spodoptera frugiperda. Evolution, 70(6), 1418-1427. doi: 10.1111/evo.12940
[6] Mayr, E. (1942) Systematics and the origin of species. Columbia University Press, New York.
[7] Nagoshi, R. N. (2019). Evidence that a major subpopulation of fall armyworm found in the Western Hemisphere is rare or absent in Africa, which may limit the range of crops at risk of infestation. PloS one, 14(4). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208966
[8] Orsucci, M., Moné, Y., Audiot, P., Gimenez, S., Nhim, S., Naït-Saïdi, R., Frayssinet, M., Dumont, G., Boudon, J.-P., Vabre, M., Rialle, S., Koual, R., Kergoat, G. J., Nagoshi, R. N., Meagher, R. L., d’Alençon, E. and Nègre N. (2020) Transcriptional differences between the two host strains of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). bioRxiv, 263186, ver. 2 peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Evol Biol. doi: 10.1101/263186
[9] Pashley, D. P. (1988) Current Status of Fall Armyworm Host Strains. Florida Entomologist 71 (3): 227–34. doi: 10.2307/3495425
[10] Pogue, M. (2002). A World Revision of the Genus Spodoptera Guenée (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). American Entomological Society.
[11] Schöfl, G., Heckel, D. G., and Groot, A. T. (2009). Time‐shifted reproductive behaviours among fall armyworm (Noctuidae: Spodoptera frugiperda) host strains: evidence for differing modes of inheritance. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22(7), 1447-1459. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01759.x
[12] Schöfl, G., Dill, A., Heckel, D. G., and Groot, A. T. (2011). Allochronic separation versus mate choice: nonrandom patterns of mating between fall armyworm host strains. The American Naturalist, 177(4), 470-485. doi: 10.1086/658904

In evolutionary biology, sexual selection is hypothesized to increase speciation rates in animals, as theory predicts that sexual selection will contribute to phenotypic diversification and affect rates of species accumulation at macro-evolutionary time scales. However, testing this hypothesis and gathering convincing evidence have proven difficult. Although some studies have shown a strong correlation between proxies of sexual selection and species diversity (mostly in birds), this relationship relies on some assumptions on the link between these proxies and the strength of sexual selection and is not detected in some other taxa, making taxonomically widespread conclusions impossible.

In a recent study published in Current Biology [1], Ellis and Oakley provide strong evidence that bioluminescent sexual displays have driven high species richness in taxonomically diverse animal lineages, providing a crucial link between sexual selection and speciation.
It was known that bioluminescence has evolved independently more than 40 times, with males often using it as a mating signal but with also some other possible adaptive functions including anti-predator defense and predation. Moreover, it has been reported that small marine lanternfishes and sharks that use bioluminescence in mate identification had a greater concentration of species than other deep-sea fishes that use bioluminescence for defensive purposes [2-4]. But no one had ever determined whether this pattern is consistent across diverse and distantly related animal groups living on sea and land.

Ellis and Oakley [1] explored the scientific literature for well-resolved evolutionary trees with branches containing bioluminescent lineages and identified lineages that use light for courtship or camouflage in a wide range of marine and terrestrial taxa including insects, crustaceans, cephalopods, segmented worms, and fishes. The researchers counted the number of species in each bioluminescent clade and found that all groups with light-courtship displays had more species and faster rates of species accumulation than their non-luminous most closely related sister lineages or ancestors. In contrast, those groups that used bioluminescence for predator avoidance had a lower than expected rate of species richness on average.

Nicely encompassing a diversity of taxa and neatly controlling for the rate of species accumulation of the encompassing clade, the results of Ellis and Oakley are clear-cut and provide the most comprehensive evidence to date for the hypothesis that sexual displays can act as drivers of speciation. One question this study incites is what is happening in terms of sexual selection in species displaying defensive bioluminescence or no bioluminescence at all: do those lineages use no mating signals at all or other mating signals that are less apparent, and will those experience lower levels of sexual selection than bioluminescent mating signals, i.e. consistent with Ellis and Oakley results? It would also be interesting to investigate the diversification rates in animal species using other modalities, such as chemical, acoustic or any other type of signals used by males, females or both sexes, to determine what types of sexual signals may be more generally drivers of speciation.

References

[1] Ellis EA, Oakley TH. 2016. High Rates of Species Accumulation in Animals with Bioluminescent Courtship Displays. Current Biology 26:1916–1921. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.043

[2] Davis MP, Holcroft NI, Wiley EO, Sparks JS, Smith WL. 2014. Species-specific bioluminescence facilitates speciation in the deep sea. Marine Biology 161:1139­1148. doi: 10.1007/s00227-014-2406-x

[3] Davis MP, Sparks JS, Smith WL. 2016. Repeated and Widespread Evolution of Bioluminescence in Marine Fishes. PLoS One 11:e0155154. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155154

[4] Claes JM, Nilsson D-E, Mallefet J, Straube N. 2015. The presence of lateral photophores correlates with increased speciation in deep-sea bioluminescent sharks. Royal Society Open Science 2:150219. doi: 10.1098/rsos.150219