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Effects, interactions, and localization of Rickettsia and Wolbachia in the house fly parasitoid, Spalangia endius

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Abstract

Many insect species harbor facultative microbial symbionts that affect their biology in diverse ways. Here, we studied the effects, interactions, and localization of two bacterial symbionts—Wolbachia and Rickettsia—in the parasitoid Spalangia endius. We crossed between four S. endius colonies—Wolbachia only (W), Rickettsia only (R), both (WR), and none (aposymbiotic, APS) (16 possible crosses) and found that Wolbachia induces incomplete cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), both when the males are W or WR. Rickettsia did not cause reproductive manipulations and did not rescue the Wolbachia-induced CI. However, when R females were crossed with W or WR males, significantly less offspring were produced compared with that of control crosses. In non-CI crosses, the presence of Wolbachia in males caused a significant reduction in offspring numbers. Females’ developmental time was significantly prolonged in the R colony, with adults starting to emerge one day later than the other colonies. Other fitness parameters did not differ significantly between the colonies. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization microscopy in females, we found that Wolbachia is localized alongside Rickettsia inside oocytes, follicle cells, and nurse cells in the ovaries. However, Rickettsia is distributed also in muscle cells all over the body, in ganglia, and even in the brain.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Avi Bar Massada for statistical advice and Maya Lapid for the graphical assistance.

Funding

The study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation, grant number 435/18 to Elad Chiel, and by a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC CoG 819585 “SYMBeetle”) to Martin Kaltenpoth.

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  1. Amit Semiatizky and Benjamin Weiss contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Environment, University of Haifa-Oranim, 36006, Tivon, Israel

    Amit Semiatizki, Shir Bagim, Sarit Rohkin-Shalom & Elad Chiel

  2. Department for Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

    Benjamin Weiss & Martin Kaltenpoth

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  1. Amit Semiatizki
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  2. Benjamin Weiss
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Contributions

All authors prepared and collected data. Data analysis was done by Benjamin Weiss, Martin Kaltenpoth, and Elad Chiel. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Elad Chiel, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Elad Chiel.

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Semiatizki, A., Weiss, B., Bagim, S. et al. Effects, interactions, and localization of Rickettsia and Wolbachia in the house fly parasitoid, Spalangia endius. Microb Ecol 80, 718–728 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01520-x

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