Digest: Fitness costs of Spiroplasma infection in pea aphids

Endosymbionts sometimes help their hosts resist parasites, but does infection of pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) with different strains of the endosymbiont Spiroplasma confer fitness benefits that offset the costs? Mathé-Hubert et al. found that across four life-history traits, Spiroplasma infectio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 2019-07, Vol.73 (7), p.1490-1491
Main Author: El-Deeb, Omar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acyrthosiphon pisum
Animals
Aphids
Cost-Benefit Analysis
DIGESTS
Endosymbionts
Fitness
Infections
Insects
Parasites
Parasitism
Pisum sativum
Spiroplasma
Symbiosis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Endosymbionts sometimes help their hosts resist parasites, but does infection of pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) with different strains of the endosymbiont Spiroplasma confer fitness benefits that offset the costs? Mathé-Hubert et al. found that across four life-history traits, Spiroplasma infection induced negative effects on host fitness when compared to controls. Only two of 12 strains of Spiroplasma showed a marginal protective effect against host parasitism by Aphidius ervi, implying Spiroplasma infection is almost entirely detrimental to pea aphid host fitness.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1111/evo.13763