Modeling the Ecology of Symbiont-Mediated Protection against Parasites

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that many maternally transmitted symbionts protect their hosts against parasites, thus ensuring their own persistence. Despite the protection they provide, such symbionts are typically found in only a fraction of the host population. This suggests that symbiont-conferred resistance is costly or that the maternal inheritance of symbionts is not perfect. To investigate these hypotheses and other properties of this complex ecological system, we develop a mathematical model based on the example of bacterial endosymbionts that protect aphids against parasitoid wasps. Simulations show that in the absence of more complex effects, a very fine balance between the costs of harboring symbionts and the strength of protection they provide is required to maintain coexistence of protected and unprotected hosts. These constraints are significantly relaxed and coexistence becomes a common outcome if deployment of symbiont-provided defenses upon a parasite attack entails an additional (induced) cost. Transmission rates of symbionts also affect coexistence, which is more frequently observed under high (but not perfect) fidelity of vertical transfer and low rates of horizontal transfer. Finally, we show that the prevalence of defensive symbionts has a strong influence on the population dynamics of hosts and parasites: population sizes are stable if and only if protected hosts dominate.