Mechanisms promoting the long-term persistence of a Wolbachia infection in a laboratory-adapted population of Drosophila melanogaster

Intracellular bacteria of the genus Wolbachia are widespread endosymbionts across diverse insect taxa. Despite this prevalence, our understanding of how Wolbachia persists within populations is not well understood. Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) appears to be an important phenotype maintaining Wol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-01, Vol.6 (1), p.e16448-e16448
Main Authors: Friberg, Urban, Miller, Paige M, Stewart, Andrew D, Rice, William R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Animal reproduction
Animals
Antibiotics
Arthropods
Bacteria
Biologi
Biology
Clinical Laboratory Techniques
Competition
Cytoplasm
Cytoplasmic incompatibility
Disease transmission
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster - microbiology
Ecology
Endosymbionts
Evolution
Expected values
Female
Females
Fitness
Health aspects
Host Specificity - physiology
Incompatibility
Infections
Insecta - microbiology
Insects
Juveniles
Laboratories
Male
Males
Marine biology
Microorganisms
NATURAL SCIENCES
NATURVETENSKAP
Offspring
Phenotype
Population
Progeny
Rickettsiaceae Infections
Sperm
Studies
Survival
Symbiosis - physiology
Taxa
Wolbachia
Yeast
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Summary:Intracellular bacteria of the genus Wolbachia are widespread endosymbionts across diverse insect taxa. Despite this prevalence, our understanding of how Wolbachia persists within populations is not well understood. Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) appears to be an important phenotype maintaining Wolbachia in many insects, but it is believed to be too weak to maintain Wolbachia in Drosophila melanogaster, suggesting that Wolbachia must also have other effects on this species. Here we estimate the net selective effect of Wolbachia on its host in a laboratory-adapted population of D. melanogaster, to determine the mechanisms leading to its persistence in the laboratory environment. We found i) no significant effects of Wolbachia infection on female egg-to-adult survival or adult fitness, ii) no reduced juvenile survival in males, iii) substantial levels of CI, and iv) a vertical transmission rate of Wolbachia higher than 99%. The fitness of cured females was, however, severely reduced (a decline of 37%) due to CI in offspring. Taken together these findings indicate that Wolbachia is maintained in our laboratory environment due to a combination of a nearly perfect transmission rate and substantial CI. Our results show that there would be strong selection against females losing their infection and producing progeny free from Wolbachia.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0016448