title: Plant domestication slows pest evolution.
abstract: Agricultural practices such as breeding resistant varieties and pesticide use can cause rapid evolution of pest species, but it remains unknown how plant domestication itself impacts pest contemporary evolution. Using experimental evolution on a comparative phylogenetic scale, we compared the evolutionary dynamics of a globally important economic pest - the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) - growing on 34 plant taxa, represented by 17 crop species and their wild relatives. Domestication slowed aphid evolution by 13.5%, maintained 10.4% greater aphid genotypic diversity and 5.6% higher genotypic richness. The direction of evolution (i.e. which genotypes increased in frequency) differed among independent domestication events but was correlated with specific plant traits. Individual-based simulation models suggested that domestication affects aphid evolution directly by reducing the strength of selection and indirectly by increasing aphid density and thus weakening genetic drift. Our results suggest that phenotypic changes during domestication can alter pest evolutionary dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada.|Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 16, Zürich, 8092, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martin M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Turcotte
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada.
authors.forename: Amaneet K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lochab
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada.|Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824-1312, USA.
authors.forename: Nash E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Turley
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada.
authors.forename: Marc T J
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D000818:Animals; D001042:Aphids / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001947:Breeding; D003198:Computer Simulation; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D040961:Genetic Drift; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D060434:Herbivory; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D011156:Population Density; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012641:Selection, Genetic
keywords: Agroecology; artificial selection; clonal sorting; contemporary evolution; crop ancestors; herbivory; individual-based model; pest resistance; plant breeding; plant-herbivore interactions