Abstract
Climate change is a major evolutionary force triggering thermal adaptation in a broad range of species. While the consequences of global warming are being studied for an increasing number of species, limited attention has been given to the evolutionary dynamics of endosymbionts in response to climate change. Here, we address this question by studying the dynamics of Wolbachia, a well-studied endosymbiont of Drosophila melanogaster. D. melanogaster populations infected with 13 different Wolbachia strains were exposed to novel hot and cold laboratory environments for up to 180 generations. The short-term dynamics suggested a temperature-related fitness difference resulting in the increase of clade V strains in the cold environment only. Our long-term analysis now uncovers that clade V dominates in all replicates after generation 60 irrespective of temperature treatment. We propose that adaptation of the Drosophila host to either temperature or Drosophila C virus (DCV) infection are the cause of the replicated, temporally non-concordant Wolbachia dynamics. Our study provides an interesting case demonstrating that even simple, well-controlled experiments can result in complex, but repeatable evolutionary dynamics, thus providing a cautionary note on too simple interpretations on the impact of climate change.
Highlights
IntroductionThe global change in climate imposes strong pressure on many species to deal with increasing temperatures (Thuiller et al, 2005; Cheung et al, 2009; Klausmeyer and Shaw, 2009)—using either mitigation strategies (e.g., shifts in range or activity periods; Davis, 2001; Menzel et al, 2006; Chen et al, 2011), or through genetic changes (e.g., thermal adaptation; Calosi et al, 2008; Marshall et al, 2010; Somero, 2010; Hoffmann and Sgrò, 2011)
The global change in climate imposes strong pressure on many species to deal with increasing temperatures (Thuiller et al, 2005; Cheung et al, 2009; Klausmeyer and Shaw, 2009)—using either mitigation strategies, or through genetic changes
Based on 197 informative polymorphisms, we distinguished 13 distinct Wolbachia strains from 47 Wolbachia-infected isofemale lines
Summary
The global change in climate imposes strong pressure on many species to deal with increasing temperatures (Thuiller et al, 2005; Cheung et al, 2009; Klausmeyer and Shaw, 2009)—using either mitigation strategies (e.g., shifts in range or activity periods; Davis, 2001; Menzel et al, 2006; Chen et al, 2011), or through genetic changes (e.g., thermal adaptation; Calosi et al, 2008; Marshall et al, 2010; Somero, 2010; Hoffmann and Sgrò, 2011). Wolbachia are intracellular α-Proteobacteria found in many insect and other arthropod species (Baldo et al, 2006; Mateos et al, 2006; Werren et al, 2008), infecting about two thirds of all insects (Hilgenboecker et al, 2008; Miller, 2013). They are predominantly transmitted through the female germline and often confer fitness advantages; e.g., virus protection Among the factors contributing to these fitness components are temperature (Jia et al, 2009; Bordenstein and Bordenstein, 2011), bacterial density in the host (Breeuwer and Werren, 1993; Bourtzis et al, 1996; Noda et al, 2001), and the genetic background of the host (Olsen et al, 2001; Reynolds and Hoffmann, 2002; Fry et al, 2004)
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