Contrasting effects of Wolbachia on cytoplasmic incompatibility and fecundity in the haplodiploid mite Tetranychus urticae

Abstract

Recent studies on Wolbachia-induced incompatibility in haplodiploid insects and mites have revealed a diversity of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) patterns among host species. Here, we report intraspecific diversity in CI expression among four strains of the arrhenotokous mite Tetranychus urticae and in T. turkestani. Variability of CI expression within T. urticae ranged from no CI to complete CI, and included either female embryonic mortality or male conversion types of CI. A fecundity cost attributed to the infection with the high-CI Wolbachia strain was the highest ever recorded for Wolbachia ()80 to )100% decrease). Sequence polymorphism at a 550-bp-portion of Wolbachia wsp gene revealed two clusters distant by 21%, one of which included three Wolbachia strains infecting mite populations sampled from the same host-plant species, but showing distinct CI patterns. These data are discussed in the light of theoretical predictions on the evolutionary pathways followed in this symbiotic interaction.

No variation for Wolbachia-induced hybrid breakdown in two populations of a spider mite

“…Sequences of two Wolbachia genes (wsp and fstZ) are identical in the C and R populations of this host species . Similarly, Perrot-Minnot et al (2002) report identical wsp sequences in Wolbachia from three infected populations of T. urticae spider mites that show different degrees of CI. Thus, there is the strong possibility that the phenotypic discrepancy for the effects of the infection found in this hostspecies is due to genotypic differences at the host level.…”

“…Depending on the species, and sometimes on the population of a species, these manipulations include feminization of infected males, induction of parthenogenesis in infected females, male-killing and cytoplasmic incompatibility (for a review see Stouthamer et al (1999)). In the phytophagous haplodiploid two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, Wolbachia can induce both cytoplasmic incompatibility (Breeuwer 1997;Perrot-Minnot et al 2002;Vala et al 2000Vala et al , 2002 and hybrid breakdown (Vala et al 2000).…”

Negative Evidence of Wolbachia in the Predaceous Mite Phytoseiulus persimilis

“…After reaching adulthood individuals were sexed and used in experiments. To exclude potential effects of male age or remating frequency on fitness, all individuals had the same age and were virgin at the beginning of the experiments (Perrot-Minnot et al 2002;Weeks et al 2002). Experimental arenas were kept in an environmental chamber at 25 ± 1°C, 16:8 L:D h photoperiod and 65 ± 5% RH.…”

“…Unidirectional CI is the most common effect induced by Wolbachia (Stouthamer et al 1999). CI has been demonstrated in several arthropod hosts including spider mites (Breeuwer 1997;Perrot-Minnot et al 2002;Vala et al 2002) and a predaceous mite (Johanowicz and Hoy 1998a, b). Unidirectional CI typically occurs in crosses between Wolbachiauninfected females and infected males (Werren 1997) and usually results in a reduced number of viable offspring and/or a male-biased sex ratio.…”

“…Wolbachia has been detected in several spider mite species (Breeuwer and Jacobs 1996;Tsagkarakou et al 1996;Van Opijnen and Breeuwer 1999;Vala et al 2000;Hong et al 2002;Perrot-Minnot et al 2002;Gotoh et al 2003) and phytoseiid mites including Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias Henriot (Breeuwer and Jacobs 1996;Weeks et al 2003;Jeyaprakash and Hoy 2004;Zchori-Fein and Perlman 2004). Phytoseiulus persimilis is specialized on tetranychid mites that produce dense webs, e.g.…”