National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8634, Japan.
J Insect Sci. 2011;11:92. doi: 10.1673/031.011.9201.
Some intracellular symbionts of arthropods induce a variety of reproductive alterations in their hosts, and the alterations tend to spread easily within the host populations. A few cases involving the spread of alteration-inducing Wolbachia bacteria in natural populations with time have been reported, but the investigations on the increasing trend in counteracting the bacterial effect on hosts in natural populations (i.e., increased resistance in hosts against the alterations) have been limited. In the present study, the prevalence of an alteration, killing of male Hypolimnas bolina (L.) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) butterflies by their inherited Wolbachia strain in the wild in Japan, was surveyed over a continuous 50-year period, which is far longer than ever before analyzed in studies of dynamics between reproductive alteration-inducing symbionts and their host arthropods. Thus, the results in this study provide the first instance of a long-term trend involving a change in reproductive alteration; and it strongly suggests a change in the opposite direction (i.e., suppression of male-killing) in natural populations. This change in the current combination of the Wolbachia and butterflies appears to be dependent upon the host taxon (race).
一些节肢动物的细胞内共生菌会在宿主身上引起各种生殖改变，这些改变往往容易在宿主种群中传播。有一些涉及时间推移下诱导改变的沃尔巴克氏体细菌在自然种群中传播的案例，但对自然种群中宿主对细菌影响的抵抗力增加趋势（即宿主对改变的抵抗力增强）的研究是有限的。在本研究中，对日本野生的 Hypolimnas bolina（L.）（鳞翅目：蛱蝶科）蝴蝶由其遗传的沃尔巴克氏体菌株引起的雄性致死的流行情况进行了长达 50 年的连续调查，这比以前对诱导生殖改变的共生体及其宿主节肢动物之间动态关系的分析时间长得多。因此，本研究的结果首次提供了涉及生殖改变的长期趋势的实例；并且强烈表明在自然种群中发生了相反方向的变化（即雄性致死的抑制）。这种沃尔巴克氏体和蝴蝶当前组合的变化似乎取决于宿主分类群（种）。
