Modelling lifestyle changes in Insect endosymbionts, from insect mutualist to plant pathogen

Several insect endosymbionts have evolved to become plant pathogens, but the causes of this transition are currently unknown. In this paper, we use adaptive dynamics to develop hypotheses to explain why an insect endosymbiont would evolve to become a plant pathogen. We develop a model of facultative...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary ecology 2020-12, Vol.34 (6), p.867-891
Main Authors: Manning Smith, Robert, Alonso-Chavez, Vasthi, Helps, Joseph, Shaw, Michael W., van den Bosch, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal Ecology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Disease transmission
Ecology
Endosymbionts
Evolution
Evolutionary Biology
Herbivores
Host plants
Insects
Intensive farming
Life Sciences
Lifestyles
Original Paper
Pathogens
Plant populations
Plant Sciences
Plants
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Several insect endosymbionts have evolved to become plant pathogens, but the causes of this transition are currently unknown. In this paper, we use adaptive dynamics to develop hypotheses to explain why an insect endosymbiont would evolve to become a plant pathogen. We develop a model of facultative insect endosymbionts, capable of both vertical transmission within the insect population and horizontal transmission between insect and plant populations. We assume that an evolutionary trade-off between vertical and horizontal transmission exists. The transmission method of an endosymbiont is correlated with the nature of the symbiotic relationship between host and symbiont. We assume that vertical transmission represents an insect endosymbiont lifestyle and horizontal transmission represents a plant pathogen lifestyle. Our results suggest that temperature increases, increased agricultural intensification, disease dynamics within the plant host, insect mating system and change in the host plant of the insect may influence an evolutionary transition from an insect endosymbiont to a plant pathogen.
ISSN:0269-7653
1573-8477
DOI:10.1007/s10682-020-10071-z