Vol. 62, 2023

(update: 2023.1.12)

Genetic Assessment of Fertile F1 Hybrids between Two Hercules Beetles, Dynastes maya Hardy and D. grantii Horn (Scarabaeidae)

^1,*, Wei-Yun Chen¹, and My Hanh Le¹

¹Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Nangang 11529, Taipei, Taiwan. *Correspondence: E-mail: jphuang@sinica.edu.tw (Huang).
E-mail: Weiyun33@gmail.com (Chen); Lehanh5664@gmail.com (Le)

(Received 25 July 2022 / 4 January Accepted 2023 / Published -- 2023)
Communicated by John Wang

Hybridization, although the process may complicate taxonomic practices, can be common between animal species. Animal hybridization not only can help with generating phenotypic and species diversity in nature, but also with understanding the genetic and genomic bases of phenotypic evolution in the laboratory. We assessed the genetic composition of captive bred F1 hybrids between two Hercules beetle species using mitochondrial CO1 and nuclear loci from a double-digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRADseq) library. We showed that the F1 hybrids were genetically clustered with samples from the maternal species, D. grantii, based on CO1 data. Nuclear genome data, on the other hand, clearly showed that the F1 individuals were genetically intermediate between D. maya, the paternal species, and D. grantii, based on a principle component analysis. Our results also revealed that sampling design may have a major impact on the inferred genetic structure and hybrid individuals using ddRADseq data sets. We discuss the importance and potential from studying the genomics of this hybrid progeny in terms of understanding the origin and maintenance of both intraspecific and interspecific phenotypic divergence and convergence.

Key words: CO1, Dynastes, Hybridization, Hybrid F1, Genomic, ddRADseq.

Citation: Huang JP, Chen WY, Le MH. 2023. Genetic assessment of fertile F1 hybrids between two Hercules beetles, Dynastes maya Hardy and D. grantii Horn (Scarabaeidae). Zool Stud 62:13.

Supplementary materials: SM. 1丨 SM. 2丨SM. 3丨SM.4