Bacterial supergroup specific “Cost” of Wolbachia infections in Nasonia vitripennis

Abstract

The maternally-inherited endosymbiont, Wolbachia, is known to alter the reproductive biology of its arthropod hosts for its own benefit. It is also known to induce both positive and negative fitness effects in many hosts. Here we describe the effect of maintenance of two distinct Wolbachia infections, one each from supergroups A and B, on the parasitoid host Nasonia vitripennis. We compare the effect of Wolbachia infections on various traits between uninfected, single A, single B, and double infected strains. Contrary to the previous reports, our results suggest that there is a “significant cost” associated with the maintenance of Wolbachia infections where traits like progeny family size, fecundity, longevity and rates of male copulation is compromised in Wolbachia infected strains. The double infection of Wolbachia has more detrimental impacts on the host as compared to single infections, while the supergroup B infections elicits the most pronounced negative effect. These findings raise important questions on the mechanism of survival and maintenance of these reproductive parasites in arthropod hosts.