How many genomic changes are required for adaptation to a novel host plant: forward genetic and whole genome sequencing approaches

Issei Ohshima (Kyoto Prefectural University)

Adaptation to a novel environment often requires the evolution in a set of related traits. Host shifting in plant feeding insects is one of examples of the multiple trait evolution, including changes both in adult preference for and larval performance on a novel host plant. Host shifting has also been considered as a first step of speciation by the process of ecological speciation, thus the number of genomic regions responsible for host adaptation is of pivotal importance for the evolutionary consequences of a novel host adaptation. Here I present research on the genetic and genomic backgrounds of host adaptation using host races of a leaf-mining moth Acrocercops transecta, which shifted their hosts between distantly related plants, Juglandaceae and Ericaceae.