Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, New South Wales 2751, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2024 Oct;291(2033):20241564. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1564. Epub 2024 Oct 30.
Many arthropods carry maternally inherited endosymbionts that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), manifested as embryonic mortality in matings of infected males with uninfected females. Infected females, however, do not suffer this cost. Therefore, in populations with mixed endosymbiont infections, selection is expected to favour mechanisms that enable hosts to avoid or mitigate CI. This may include changes in mating behaviour, such as reduced female receptivity to mating and/or remating when approached by incompatible males. Here, we investigated mating behavioural traits in haplodiploid thrips naturally associated with two CI-inducing endosymbionts, and . Compared with females with both endosymbionts, those with only showed reduced receptivity to males carrying both. However, surprisingly, females without endosymbionts were not less receptive to incompatible males. Furthermore, in contrast to females without endosymbionts, females with were far less likely to remate with incompatible than compatible males irrespective of the compatibility type of the first mating. Our results suggest that endosymbiont-specific sexual selection processes occur, whereby females carrying only recognize in coinfected males to avoid CI. This may hinder a CI-driven spread. Endosymbiont-mediated mating behaviours may be crucial for the dynamics of CI-inducing endosymbionts and their application in pest management strategies.
许多节肢动物携带由母体遗传的共生体,这些共生体导致细胞质不兼容(CI),表现为感染雄性与未感染雌性交配时胚胎死亡。然而,感染雌性不会遭受这种代价。因此,在共生体混合感染的种群中,选择预计会有利于宿主避免或减轻 CI 的机制。这可能包括交配行为的变化,例如当不兼容的雄性接近时,雌性对交配和/或再交配的接受度降低。在这里,我们研究了与两种诱导 CI 的共生体 和 自然相关的单倍二倍体蓟马的交配行为特征。与同时携带两种共生体的雌性相比,仅携带 的雌性对携带两种共生体的雄性的接受度降低。然而,令人惊讶的是,没有共生体的雌性对不兼容的雄性的接受度并没有降低。此外,与没有共生体的雌性不同,无论第一次交配的兼容性类型如何,携带 的雌性与不兼容的雄性交配的可能性远低于与兼容的雄性交配。我们的研究结果表明,共生体特异性的性选择过程发生了,携带仅 的雌性识别感染雄性中的 以避免 CI。这可能会阻碍 CI 驱动的 的传播。共生体介导的交配行为对于诱导 CI 的共生体的动态及其在害虫管理策略中的应用可能至关重要。