Low temperature cure of a male killing agent in Drosophila melanogaster

Environmental factors can affect transmission or phenotype expression of selfish cytoplasmic endosymbionts such as embryonic male killers. Temperature is one factor that usually affects the transmission rate of selfish cytoplasmic endosymbionts. Heat cures have been described for several host-parasite systems, cold cures, however, are rare. We report a temperature cure of the Drosophila melanogaster male-killing agent, which occurs when flies are raised at 16.5 degrees C. Flies grown at 20, 24, and 28 degrees C maintained an extremely female biased sexual proportion.