Department of Animal Evolution and Biodiversity, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
BMC Res Notes. 2022 Jul 7;15(1):240. doi: 10.1186/s13104-022-06123-y.
Environmental constraints, especially temperature, have been identified as a key in understanding host-symbiont relationships, as they can directly impact the fitness of the symbiont population and the host development. Here we investigated the effect of temperature during the host development on the density of intracellular bacteria of the Wolbachia, wTcon strain within the confused flour beetle, Tribolium confusum. The wTcon can induce a complete cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) in T. confusum beetles; therefore, we observed the effect of heat stress on the symbiont-mediated CI.
The density of CI inducing Wolbachia in the Tribolium confusum is temperature-specific. Our observation of the beetles reared in five different temperatures (30-34 °C) measured the highest Wolbachia density at 30-31 °C and lowest at 34 °C within a single insect generation. In this species, changes in the density of Wolbachia related to higher temperature did not influence CI. However, the fertility of beetles reared in higher temperatures showed a substantial decrease in the number of laid and hatched eggs. Thus, we can confirm the effect of high temperature on lowering the wTcon density and no impact on induction of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) in T. confusum beetles.
环境限制，尤其是温度，已被确定为理解宿主-共生体关系的关键因素，因为它们会直接影响共生体种群和宿主发育的适应性。在这里，我们研究了宿主发育过程中温度对迷走粉斑螟体内共生菌 wTcon 密度的影响。wTcon 可在迷走粉斑螟中诱导完全细胞质不亲和性（CI）；因此，我们观察了热应激对共生介导的 CI 的影响。
在迷走粉斑螟中诱导 CI 的沃尔巴克氏体的密度具有温度特异性。我们观察了在五个不同温度（30-34°C）下饲养的甲虫，在一个昆虫世代内，30-31°C 时 wTcon 密度最高，34°C 时最低。在该物种中，与较高温度相关的沃尔巴克氏体密度的变化并不影响 CI。然而，在较高温度下饲养的甲虫的生育力显示出产卵和孵化数量的大幅减少。因此，我们可以确认高温对降低 wTcon 密度的影响，而对迷走粉斑螟中细胞质不亲和性（CI）的诱导没有影响。
