More Is Not Always Better: Coinfections with Defensive Symbionts Generate Highly Variable Outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Animal-associated microbes are highly variable, contributing to a diverse set of symbiont-mediated phenotypes. Given that host and symbiont genotypes, and their interactions, can impact symbiont-based phenotypes across environments, there is potential for extensive variation in fitness outcomes. Pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum, host a diverse assemblage of heritable facultative symbionts (HFS) with characterized roles in host defense. Protective phenotypes have been largely studied as single infections, but pea aphids often carry multiple HFS species, and particular combinations may be enriched or depleted compared to expectations based on chance. Here, we examined the consequences of single infection versus coinfection with two common HFS exhibiting variable enrichment, the antiparasitoid

SUBMITTER: Weldon SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7028961 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature