Conclusion
TEs are one of the powerful drivers of the adaptive evolution of
organisms. The fig wasps live in the enclosed syconia of fig trees that
are restricted in tropical and subtropical regions. The composition and
burst patterns of the genomic TEs reflect their adaptation to the
syconia microenvironment. Meanwhile, from the perspective of adaptation
to the global climate changes, when the fig trees affected by
geo-climatic changes and underwent drastic changes in the physiological
characters such as the flowering cycle, the fig wasps may self-regulate
to adapt to these changes in its habitat of the syconia by regulation of
genes related to Circadian entrainment pathways through the changes of
TEs in the genomes.
In
the future, further verification of the functions of TEs on the
regulation of related genes will help us understand how this closely
related symbiotic system between the figs and fig wasps
has
been adapted to environmental changes during the evolutionary process.