Recently, an article titled “Extreme climate shifts pest dominance hierarchy through thermal evolution and transgenerational plasticity” was published in the journal Functional Ecology by Professor Ma Chunsen’s research group at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPPCAAS). In this study, the authors indicated that climate-driven interspecific differences in the evolutionary rates of thermal tolerance of cereal aphids could lead to an alteration in their dominance hierarchy. To explain its mechanism, the authors dissected the climate-driven variation in thermal traits into genetic and transgenerational plastic parts using tailored quantitative genetic models. This study was commented by the journal editor Dr. Caroline Williams from the University of California-Berkeley, saying “this important study is highly novel in linking dominance hierarchy shifts under climate change to eco-evolutionary responses to thermal extremes, and so is an important contribution to the literature predicting ecological and evolutionary impacts of climate change.”

According to Professor Ma, Rhopalosiphum padi and Sitobion avenae are the two most popular pests in the main wheat producing areas of China, such as Henan and Hubei provinces. In these planting areas, S. avenae is the dominant species of the cereal aphid communities. However, it was found that in the years or areas with relative high temperatures, frequent heat events generated negative effects on the population growth of S. avenae, but did not affect R. padi, resulting in an increased relative density of R. padi to S. avenae. In addition, the eco-evolutionary process of thermal tolerance for cereal aphids is clearly species-specific. After several thermal selections, R. padi improved thermal tolerance through rapid evolution, while S. avenae performed worse due to detrimental transgenerational plasticity. R. padi may take over the dominant position of S. avenae in a warmer future, due to a higher evolutionary potential of thermal tolerance.

In addition to IPPCAAS scientists, Professor Ary Hoffmann from the University of Melbourne, Australia also contributed to this study. This work was mainly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31620103914).

More details can be found at the link below:

https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13774

By Zhang Wei (zhangwei06@caas.cn)