Evolution of Oxidative Phosphorylation (OXPHOS) Genes Reflecting the Evolutionary and Life Histories of Fig Wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea)

Abstract

Fig wasps are a peculiar group of insects which, for millions of years, have inhabited the enclosed syconia of fig trees. Considering the relatively closed and dark environment of fig syconia, we hypothesize that the fig wasps’ oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) pathway, which is the main oxygen consumption and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production system, may have adaptively evolved. In this study, we manually annotated the OXPHOS genes of 11 species of fig wasps, and compared the evolutionary patterns of OXPHOS genes for six pollinators and five non-pollinators. Thirteen mitochondrial protein-coding genes and 30 nuclear-coding single-copy orthologous genes were used to analyze the amino acid substitution rate and natural selection. The results showed high amino acid substitution rates of both mitochondrial and nuclear OXPHOS genes in fig wasps, implying the co-evolution of mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Our results further revealed that the OXPHOS-related genes evolved significantly faster in pollinators than in non-pollinators, and five genes had significant positive selection signals in the pollinator lineage, indicating that OXPHOS genes play an important role in the adaptation of pollinators. This study can help us understand the relationship between gene evolution and environmental adaptation.