Genetic architecture of differences between populations of cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus) evolved in the same environment.

We investigated the genetic architecture underlying differentiation in fitness-related traits between two pairs of populations of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). These populations had geographically distant (> 2000 km) origins but evolved in a uniform laboratory environment for 120 generations. For each pair of populations (Nigeria x Yemen and Cameroon x Uganda) we estimated the means of five fitness-related characters and a measure of fitness (net reproductive rate R0) in each of the parental populations and 12 types of hybrids (two F1 and two F2 lines and eight backcrosses). Models containing up to nine composite genetic parameters were fitted to the means of the 14 lines. The patterns of line means for all traits in the Nigeria x Yemen cross and for four traits (larval survival, developmental rate, female body weight, and fecundity) in the Cameroon x Uganda cross were best explained by models including additive, dominance, and maternal effects, but excluding epistasis. We did not find any evidence for outbreeding depression for any trait. An epistatic component of divergence was detected for egg hatching success and R0 in the Cameroon x Uganda cross, but its sign was opposite to that expected under outbreeding depression, that is, additive x additive epistasis had a positive effect on the performance of F2 hybrids. All traits except fecundity showed a pattern of heterosis. A large difference of egg-hatching success between the two reciprocal F1 lines in that cross was best explained as fertilization incompatibility between Cameroon females and sperm carrying Uganda genes. The results suggest that these populations have not converged to the same life-history phenotype and genetic architecture, despite 120 generations of uniform natural selection. However, the absence of outbreeding depression implies that they did not evolve toward different adaptive peaks.