10.5061/DRYAD.WPZGMSBMZ
Kaech, Heidi
0000-0002-2149-8050
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Vorburger, Christoph
0000-0002-3627-0841
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Jud, Stephanie
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
Similar cost of Hamiltonella defensa in experimental and natural
aphid-endosymbiont associations
Dryad
dataset
2021
FOS: Biological sciences
2023-01-10T00:00:00Z
2023-01-10T00:00:00Z
en
56672 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Endosymbiont-conferred resistance to parasitoids is common in aphids, but
comes at a cost to the host in the absence of parasitoids. In black bean
aphids (Aphis fabae), costs in terms of reduced lifespan and lifetime
reproduction were demonstrated by introducing eleven isolates of the
protective symbiont Hamiltonella defensa into previously uninfected aphid
clones. Transfection of H. defensa isolates into a common genetic
background allows to compare the costs of different endosymbiont isolates
unconfounded by host genetic variation, but has been suggested to
overestimate the realised costs of the endosymbiont in natural
populations, because transfection creates new and potentially maladapted
host-symbiont combinations that would be eliminated by natural selection
in the field. In this experiment, we show that removing H. defensa
isolates from their natural host clones with antibiotics results in a
fitness gain that is comparable to the fitness loss from their
introduction into two new clones. This suggests that cost estimated from
transfecting endosymbiont isolates into a shared host genotype does not
lead to gross overestimates of their realised costs, at least not in the
two recipient genotypes used here. By comparing our data with data
reported in previous publications using the same lines, we show that
symbiont-induced costs may fluctuate over time. Thus, costs estimated
after extended culture in the laboratory may not always be representative
of the costs at the time of collection in the field. Finally, we report
the accidental observation that two isolates from a distinct haplotype of
H. defensa could not be removed by cefotaxime treatment, while all
isolates from two other haplotypes were readily eliminated, which is
suggestive of variation in susceptibility to this antibiotic in H.
defensa.