scholarly journals Wolbachia manipulates host pre-imaginal learning in a parasitoid wasp

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pouria Abroon ◽  
Ahmad Ashori ◽  
Anne Duplouy ◽  
Hossein Kishani Farahani
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Host Preference ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Trichogramma Brassicae ◽  
Wolbachia Pipientis ◽  
Lepidoptera Pyralidae ◽  
Predatory Insects ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

AbstractThe Hopkin’s host-selection principle (HHSP) suggests that organisms at higher trophic levels demonstrate a preference for the host species on which they developed during larval stage. Although investigated in many herbivorous and predatory insects, the HHSP has, to our knowledge, never been tested in the context of insects hosting selfish endosymbiotic passengers such as the maternally inherited bacterium Wolbachia pipientis. Here, we investigate the effect of Wolbachia infection on host pre-imaginal learning in the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma brassicae (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae). We compare host-choice in Wolbachia-infected and uninfected adult female parasitoids after rearing them on two different Lepidopteran hosts, namely the flour moth Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) or the grain moth Sitotroga cerealella (Lep.: Gelechiidae). We show that in T. brassicae, Wolbachia affect the pre-imaginal learning ability of female wasps. Wolbachia infected wasps do not show any host preference and easily switch hosts in the laboratory, while uninfected wasps significantly prefer to lay eggs on the host species they developed on. We discuss how the facilitation of a generalist strategy by Wolbachia may allow T. brassicae to escape intraspecific competition with their uninfected counterparts, and may have important evolutionary consequences for the host and its symbionts.

scholarly journals Wolbachia manipulate fitness benefits of olfactory associative learning in a parasitoid wasp

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Kishani Farahani ◽  
Ahmad Ashouri ◽  
Pouria Abroon ◽  
Jean-Sebastien Pierre ◽  
Joan van Baaren
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Aversive Learning ◽  
Fitness Costs ◽  
Trichogramma Brassicae ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Upon encountering a host, a female parasitoid wasp has to decide whether to learn positive or negative cues related to a host. The optimal female decision will depend on the fitness costs and benefits of learned stimuli. Reward quality is positively related to the rate of behavioral acquisition in processes such as associative learning. Wolbachia, an endosymbiotic bacterium, often plays an impressive role in the manipulation of its arthropod host's biology. Here we studied the responses of two natural Wolbachia infected/uninfected Trichogramma brassicae populations to theoretically high- and low- reward values during a conditioning process and the consequences of their responses in terms of memory duration. According to our results, uninfected wasps showed an attraction response to high value rewards, but showed aversive learning in response to low value rewards. Memory span of uninfected wasps after conditioning by low-value rewards was significantly shorter compared to high-value rewards. As our results revealed, responses to high quality hosts will bring more benefits (bigger size, increased fecundity and enhanced survival) compared to low-quality hosts for uninfected wasps. Infected wasps were attracted to conditioned stimuli with the same memory duration after conditioning by both types of hosts. This was linked to the fact that parasitoids emerging from both types of hosts present the same life-history traits. Therefore, these hosts represent the same quality reward for infected wasps. According to obtained results it can be concluded that Wolbachia manipulates the learning ability of its host resulting in the wasp responding to all reward values similarly.

scholarly journals Shifts from pulled to pushed range expansions caused by reduction of landscape connectivity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxime Dahirel ◽  
Aline Bertin ◽  
Marjorie Haond ◽  
Aurelie Blin ◽  
Eric Lombaert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Landscape Connectivity ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Trichogramma Brassicae ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Edge Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

Range expansions are key processes shaping the distribution of species; their ecological and evolutionary dynamics have become especially relevant today, as human influence reshapes ecosystems worldwide. Many attempts to explain and predict range expansions assume, explicitly or implicitly, so-called "pulled" expansion dynamics, in which the low-density edge populations provide most of the "fuel" for the species advance. Some expansions, however, exhibit very different dynamics, with high-density populations behind the front "pushing" the expansion forward. These two types of expansions are predicted to have different effects on e.g. genetic diversity and habitat quality sensitivity. However, empirical studies are lacking due to the challenge of generating reliably pushed vs. pulled expansions in the laboratory, or discriminating them in the field. We here propose that manipulating the degree of connectivity among populations may prove a more generalizable way to create pushed expansions. We demonstrate this with individual-based simulations as well as replicated experimental range expansions (using the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma brassicae as model). By analyzing expansion velocities and neutral genetic diversity, we showed that reducing connectivity led to pushed dynamics. Low connectivity alone, i.e. without density-dependent dispersal, can only lead to "weakly pushed" expansions, where invasion speed conforms to pushed expectations, but the decline in genetic diversity does not. In empirical expansions however, low connectivity may in some cases also lead to adjustments to the dispersal-density function, recreating "classical" pushed expansions. In the current context of habitat loss and fragmentation, we need to better account for this relationship between connectivity and expansion regimes to successfully predict the ecological and evolutionary consequences of range expansions.

Wolbachia impairs post-eclosion host preference in a parasitoid wasp

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pouria Abrun ◽  
Ahmad Ashouri ◽  
Anne Duplouy ◽  
Hossein Kishani Farahani
Keyword(s):  
Host Preference ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp

scholarly journals Correlation of Haplotypes of a Fungal Plant Pathogen with their Respective Host Species of Origin

Plant Disease ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 81 (8) ◽  
pp. 936-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie S. Garr ◽  
Carolyn Hughes ◽  
Jacqueline Welch ◽  
Scott A. Brown ◽  
Michael H. Perlin
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Host Preference ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Microbotryum Violaceum ◽  
Coding Regions ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Wobble Position ◽  
Conserved Gene ◽  
Respective Host

The anther smut fungus, Microbotryum violaceum, infects over 200 species of Caryophyllaceae (Pinks). However, limited published studies, as well as anecdotal evidence, suggest that each isolate of the fungus is restricted to one or a few species that it can productively infect. In the absence of physical differences, it would be useful to have molecular markers to identify individuals with specific host ranges prior to genetic analyses of host preference. With this purpose in mind, 17 isolates from eight different host species were characterized for differences in their respective γ-tubulin genes. The region of the gene including the sixth and seventh introns and some surrounding coding regions was amplified and sequenced and the results were analyzed phylogenetically. Despite the small sample size and the geographical distribution of their respective host plants, isolates from the same host species showed no differences in the DNA regions examined; isolates of closely related pathovars also grouped together. In contrast, relative to the corresponding regions from other pathovars, isolates from host species that were genetically or taxonomically more distant showed a marked number of differences in both introns and in the third (wobble) position of codons in the seventh exon. Thus, DNA sequence differences in this highly conserved gene may be used to distinguish isolates from different host species. Such information may prove useful as markers for the different formae speciales in future analyses of host preference.

scholarly journals Effects of mass releases of Trichogramma brassicae on predatory insects in maize

2003 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Babendreier ◽  
M. Rostas ◽  
M. C. J. Höfte ◽  
S. Kuske ◽  
F. Bigler
Keyword(s):  
Trichogramma Brassicae ◽  
Predatory Insects

scholarly journals Characterization, and Functional Analysis of Hsp70 and Hsp90 Gene Families in Glyphodes pyloalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-hao Ding ◽  
Lu-xin Zheng ◽  
Jie Chu ◽  
Xin-hao Liang ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Gene Families ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Signal Pathways ◽  
Hsp70 Family ◽  
Glyphodes Pyloalis ◽  
Lepidoptera Pyralidae ◽  
Significant Expression ◽  
Shock Proteins

Glyphodes pyloalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a destructive mulberry pest, causing great damage to mulberry in China. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are involved in various signal pathways and regulate lots of physiological processes in insects. The function of Hsps in G. pyloalis, however, has still received less attention. Here, we identified five Hsp genes from G. pyloalis transcriptome dataset including two Hsp70 family genes (GpHsp71.3 and GpHsp74.9) and three Hsp90 family genes (GpHsp82.4, GpHsp89, and GpHsp93.4). Quantitative Real-time PCR validation revealed that all Hsps of G. pyloalis have significant expression in pupal and diapause stage, at which the larvae arrest the development. Expressions of GpHsp71.3 and GpHsp82.4 were increased significantly after thermal treatment at 40°C, and this upregulation depended on heat treatment duration. Furthermore, silencing GpHsp82.4 by RNA interference led to a significant increase in mortality of G. pyloalis larvae under the heat stress compared to the control group. After starvation stress, the expression levels of GpHsp82.4 and GpHsp93.4 were significantly increased. At last, after being parasitized by the parasitoid wasp Aulacocentrum confusum, Hsp70 and Hsp90 genes of G. pyloalis were decreased significantly in the early stage of parasitization and this moderation was affected by time post-parasitization. This study highlights the function of G. pyloalis Hsps in response to environmental stress and provides a perspective for the control of this pest.

Host-Parasitoid Interactions

Ecology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Wide Range

Insects are a highly diverse group due to their ability to exploit a wide range of niches. Each plant is attacked by multiple herbivores and these in turn may harbor a bewildering complexity of natural enemies, particularly parasitoids, which are often quite specialized in terms of the host species identity (and stage of attack) of their hosts. Furthermore, these parasitoids have their own parasitoids that attack them, meaning that food webs including these insects may go up to five trophic levels (or even more). Due to their diversity and strong link population dynamics, parasitoids comprise important aspects of ecological communities. Because of this and their potential as biocontrol agents, host-parasitoid dynamics have been a major focus of ecological and evolutionary study since the beginning of the 20th century.

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