Macronutrients mediate the functional relationship between Drosophila and Wolbachia

Ponton, Fleur and Wilson, Ken and Holmes, Andrew and Raubenheimer, David and Robinson, Katie and Simpson, Stephen J. (2015) Macronutrients mediate the functional relationship between Drosophila and Wolbachia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282 (1800): 20142029. ISSN 0962-8452

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Abstract

Wolbachia are maternally inherited bacterial endosymbionts that naturally infect a diverse array of arthropods. They are primarily known for their manipulation of host reproductive biology, and recently, infections with Wolbachia have been proposed as a new strategy for controlling insect vectors and subsequent human-transmissible diseases. Yet, Wolbachia abundance has been shown to vary greatly between individuals and the magnitude of the effects of infection on host life-history traits and protection against infection is correlated to within-host Wolbachia abundance. It is therefore essential to better understand the factors that modulate Wolbachia abundance and effects on host fitness. Nutrition is known to be one of the most important mediators of host-symbiont interactions. Here, we used nutritional geometry to quantify the role of macronutrients on insect-Wolbachia relationships in Drosophila melanogaster. Our results show fundamental interactions between diet composition, host diet selection, Wolbachia abundance and effects on host lifespan and fecundity. The results and methods described here open a new avenue in the study of insect-Wolbachia relationships and are of general interest to numerous research disciplines, ranging from nutrition and life-history theory to public health.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Additional Information:
© 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1100
Subjects:
?? general agricultural and biological sciencesgeneral biochemistry,genetics and molecular biologygeneral environmental sciencegeneral immunology and microbiologygeneral medicineagricultural and biological sciences(all)biochemistry, genetics and molecular bi ??
ID Code:
73795
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
18 Jun 2015 05:45
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
25 Sep 2024 00:34