Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Oct;7(10):1667-1681. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02160-3. Epub 2023 Aug 10.
One of the biggest challenges for pathogens invading hosts is microbial symbionts but the role of pathogens in symbionts in nature is unknown. By tracking the dynamics of the entomopathogenic fungal Cordyceps javanica and symbionts in natural populations of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci from 2016 to 2021 across China, we reveal that Rickettsia, a newly invaded symbiont, is positively correlated with the pathogen in both frequency and density. We confirm that applying pathogen pressure can selectively drive Rickettsia to sudden fixation in whiteflies both in the laboratory and in the field. Furthermore, the driving force is elucidated by the Rickettsia-conferred suppression of pathogen infection quantity, proliferation and sporulation, acting as a potential barrier of onward transmission of the pathogen. These results show that pathogens are an important driving force for rapid shifts in host symbionts in the natural niche.
对于入侵宿主的病原体来说，最大的挑战之一是微生物共生体，但病原体在自然界中对共生体的作用尚不清楚。本研究通过跟踪 2016 年至 2021 年期间中国自然种群中嗜虫书虱及其共生真菌虫草的动态，揭示了新入侵共生体立克次氏体在频率和密度上都与病原体呈正相关。我们证实，施加病原体压力可以选择性地导致实验室和野外的嗜虫书虱中立克次氏体的突然固定。此外，通过立克次氏体抑制病原体感染数量、增殖和孢子形成来阐明驱动力，作为病原体进一步传播的潜在障碍。这些结果表明，病原体是宿主共生体在自然环境中快速转变的重要驱动力。
