Ecology and Evolution (2019) 9, 12658-12675

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Stéphanie Sherpa, Maya Guéguen, Julien Renaud, Michael G.B. Blum, Thierry Gaude, Frédéric Laporte, Mustafa Akiner, Bulent Alten, Carles Aranda, Hélène Barre-Cardi, Romeo Bellini, Mikel Bengoa Paulis, Xiao-Guang Chen, Roger Eritja, Eleonora Flacio, Cipriano Foxi, Intan H. Ishak, Katja Kalan, Shinji Kasai, Fabrizio Montarsi, Igor Pajovic, Dusan Petric, Rosa Termine, Natasa Turic, Gonzalo M. Vazquez-Prokopec, Enkelejda Velo, Goran Vignjevic, Xiaohong Zhou and Laurence Després (2019)
Predicting the success of an invader: Niche shift versus niche conservatism
Ecology and Evolution 9 (22), 12658-12675
Abstract: Invasive species can encounter environments different from their source populations, which may trigger rapid adaptive changes after introduction (niche shift hypothesis). To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether postintroduction evolution is correlated with contrasting environmental conditions between the European invasive and source ranges in the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus. The comparison of environmental niches occupied in European and source population ranges revealed more than 96% overlap between invasive and source niches, supporting niche conservatism. However, we found evidence for postintroduction genetic evolution by reanalyzing a published ddRADseq genomic dataset from 90 European invasive populations using genotype–environment association (GEA) methods and generalized dissimilarity modeling (GDM). Three loci, among which a putative heat-shock protein, exhibited significant allelic turnover along the gradient of winter precipitation that could be associated with ongoing range expansion. Wing morphometric traits weakly correlated with environmental gradients within Europe, but wing size differed between invasive and source populations located in different climatic areas. Niche similarities between source and invasive ranges might have facilitated the establishment of populations. Nonetheless, we found evidence for environmental-induced adaptive changes after introduction. The ability to rapidly evolve observed in invasive populations (genetic shift) together with a large proportion of unfilled potential suitable areas (80%) pave the way to further spread of Ae. albopictus in Europe.
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Database assignments for author(s): Bulent Alten, Romeo Bellini, Cipriano Foxi, Shinji Kasai, Fabrizio Montarsi, Dusan Petric, Gonzalo M. Vazquez-Prokopec

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
environment - cropping system/rotation
population dynamics/ epidemiology

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Aedes albopictus		Albania
	Aedes albopictus		Croatia
	Aedes albopictus		France
	Aedes albopictus		Greece
	Aedes albopictus		Italy
	Aedes albopictus		Serbia
	Aedes albopictus		Slovenia
	Aedes albopictus		Spain (continental)
	Aedes albopictus		Switzerland
	Aedes albopictus		Japan
	Aedes albopictus		Montenegro