Partner choice and fidelity stabilize coevolution in a Cretaceous-age defensive symbiosis.

ABSTRACT: Many insects rely on symbiotic microbes for survival, growth, or reproduction. Over evolutionary timescales, the association with intracellular symbionts is stabilized by partner fidelity through strictly vertical symbiont transmission, resulting in congruent host and symbiont phylogenies. However, little is known about how symbioses with extracellular symbionts, representing the majority of insect-associated microorganisms, evolve and remain stable despite opportunities for horizontal exchange and de novo acquisition of symbionts from the environment. Here we demonstrate that host control over symbiont transmission (partner choice) reinforces partner fidelity between solitary wasps and antibiotic-producing bacteria and thereby stabilizes this Cretaceous-age defensive mutualism. Phylogenet

SUBMITTER: Kaltenpoth M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4035988 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature