Small steps or giant leaps for male-killers? Phylogenetic constraints to male-killer host shifts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Arthropods are infected by a wide diversity of maternally transmitted microbes. Some of these manipulate host reproduction to facilitate population invasion and persistence. Such parasites transmit vertically on an ecological timescale, but rare horizontal transmission events have permitted colonisation of new species. Here we report the first systematic investigation into the influence of the phylogenetic distance between arthropod species on the potential for reproductive parasite interspecific transfer.

Results

We employed a well characterised reproductive parasite, a coccinellid beetle male-killer, and artificially injected the bacterium into a series of novel species. Genetic distances between native and novel hosts were ascertained by sequencing sections of

SUBMITTER: Tinsley MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2222251 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature