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INCIPIENT EVOLUTION OF WOLBACHIA COMPATIBILITY TYPES
Author(s) -
Charlat Sylvain,
Riegler Markus,
Baures Isabelle,
Poinsot Denis,
Stauffer Christian,
Merclot Hervé
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2004.tb00478.x
Subject(s) - wolbachia , biology , cytoplasmic incompatibility , drosophila melanogaster , genetics , evolutionary biology , host (biology) , gene
. ‐Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is induced in arthropods by the maternally inherited bacterium Wolbachia . When infected males mate with uninfected females or with females bearing a different Wolbachia variant, paternal chromosomes behave abnormally and embryos die. This pattern can be interpreted as resulting from two bacterial effects: One (usually termed mod , for modification) would affect sperm and induce embryo death, unless Wolbachia is also present in the egg, which implies the existence of a second effect, usually termed resc , for rescue. The fact that CI can occur in crosses between males and females infected by different Wolbachia shows that mod and resc interact in a specific manner. In other words, different compatibility types, or mod/resc pairs seem to have diverged from one (or a few) common ancestor(s). We are interested in the process allowing the evolution of mod/resc pairs. Here this question is addressed experimentally after cytoplasmic injection into a single host species ( Drosophila simulans ) by investigating compatibility relationships between closely related Wolbachia variants naturally evolving in different dipteran hosts: D. simulans , Drosophila melanogaster , and Rhagoletis cerasi . Our results suggest that closely related bacteria can be totally or partially incompatible. The compatibility relationships observed can be explained using a formal description of the mod and resc functions, implying both qualitative and quantitative variations.