ArticleThe Journal of animal ecology2016
Symbionts modify interactions between insects and natural enemies in the field.
Article in The Journal of animal ecology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Native Regiella Endosymbionts Provide Strong Parasitoid Protection With Limited Impacts on Fitness and Virus Transmission in Myzus persicae.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Gut microbiome convergence and functional adaptation underlie the evolution of predation in stink bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae).Microbiome · 2026Article
- The roles of dispersal limitation and pre-adaptation in shapingApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Ecological Mercenaries: Why Aphids Remain Premier Models for the Study of Ecological Symbiosis.Insects · 2025Review
- Bacterial symbiont as game changers for Aphis craccivora Koch's fitness and survival across distinct climate types.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- With a little help from my friends: the roles of microbial symbionts in insect populations and communities.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Pathogen-microbiome interactions and the virulence of an entomopathogenic fungus.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Impact of intraspecific variation in insect microbiomes on host phenotype and evolution.The ISME journal · 2023Review
- Article
- Floral presence and flower identity alter cereal aphid endosymbiont communities on adjacent crops.The Journal of applied ecology · 2023Article
- An aphid symbiont confers protection against a specialized RNA virus, another increases vulnerability to the same pathogen.Molecular ecology · 2023Article
- Bottom-up effect of host protective symbionts on parasitoid diversity: Limited evidence from two field experiments.The Journal of animal ecology · 2022Article
- The chemical ecology of the fungus-farming termite symbiosis.Natural product reports · 2022Review
- Dynamics of symbiotic bacterial community in whole life stage ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Frequent Drivers, Occasional Passengers: Signals of Symbiont-Driven Seasonal Adaptation and Hitchhiking in the Pea Aphid,Insects · 2021Article
- Genetic identity and genotype × genotype interactions between symbionts outweigh species level effects in an insect microbiome.The ISME journal · 2021Article
- Intraspecific variation in immune gene expression and heritable symbiont density.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- Multiple phenotypes conferred by a single insect symbiont are independent.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Impacts of a novel defensive symbiosis on the nematode host microbiome.BMC microbiology · 2020Article
- More Is Not Always Better: Coinfections with Defensive Symbionts Generate Highly Variable Outcomes.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Eukaryotes commonly host communities of heritable symbiotic bacteria, many of which are not essential for their hosts' survival and reproduction. There is laboratory evidence that these facultative symbionts can provide useful adaptations, such as increased resistance to natural enemies. However, we do not know how symbionts affect host fitness when the latter are subject to attack by a natural suite of parasites and pathogens. Here, we test whether two protective symbionts, Regiella insecticola and Hamiltonella defensa, increase the fitness of their host, the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum), under natural conditions. We placed experimental populations of two pea aphid lines, each with and without symbionts, in five wet meadow sites to expose them to a natural assembly of enemy species. The aphids were then retrieved and mortality from parasitoids, fungal pathogens and other causes assessed. We found that both Regiella and Hamiltonella reduce the proportion of aphids killed by the specific natural enemies against which they have been shown to protect in laboratory and cage experiments. However, this advantage was nullified (Hamiltonella) or reversed (Regiella) by an increase in mortality from other natural enemies and by the cost of carrying the symbiont. Symbionts therefore affect community structure by altering the relative success of different natural enemies. Our results show that protective symbionts are not necessarily advantageous to their hosts, and may even behave more like parasites than mutualists. Nevertheless, bacterial symbionts may play an important role in determining food web structure and dynamics.
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