4.7 Article

Environmental Temperature, but Not Male Age, Affects Wolbachia and Prophage WO Thereby Modulating Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in the Parasitoid Wasp, Habrobracon Hebetor

Journal

MICROBIAL ECOLOGY
Volume 83, Issue 2, Pages 482-491

Publisher

SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00248-021-01768-x

Keywords

Wolbachia; Prophage WO; Male aging; Temperature; Cif genes; Cytoplasmic Incompatibility; Habrobracon hebetor

Funding

  1. Iran National Science Foundation [98008582]

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Temperature has a greater impact on the CI phenotype of Habrobracon hebetor wasps than male age, reducing CI penetrance and decreasing the expression of CI factors. CifA shows higher expression levels than CifB, and temperature affects Wolbachia and prophage WO titers as well as the expression levels of cif genes that modulate CI levels.
Wolbachia is an endosymbiotic bacterium found in many species of arthropods and manipulates its host reproduction. Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is one of the most common manipulations that is induced when an uninfected female mates with a Wolbachia-infected male. The CI factors (cifA and cifB genes) are encoded by phage WO that naturally infects Wolbachia. Here, we questioned whether an environmental factor (temperature) or host factor (male age) affected the strength of the CI phenotype in the ectoparasitoid wasp, Habrobracon hebetor. We found that temperature, but not male age, results in reduced CI penetrance. Consistent with these results, we also found that the expression of the cif CI factors decreased in temperature-exposed males but was consistent across aging male wasps. Similar to studies of other insect systems, cifA showed a higher expression level than cifB, and male hosts showed increased cif expression relative to females. Our results suggest that prophage WO is present in the Wolbachia-infected wasps and expression of cif genes contributes to the induction of CI in this insect. It seems that male aging has no effect on the intensity of CI; however, temperature affects Wolbachia and prophage WO titers as well as expression levels of cif genes, which modulate the CI level.

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