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Evolution of early male-killing in horizontally transmitted parasites

Veronika Bernhauerová1, Luděk Berec2, Daniel Maxin3

  • 1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, Brno 61137, Czech Republic bernhauerv@gmail.com.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|November 6, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Horizontal transmission facilitates the evolution of male-killing (MK) bacteria, which eliminate male offspring. These findings explain the high efficacy and variability of MK bacteria across insect species.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Microbiology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Male-killing (MK) bacteria are vertically transmitted parasites that kill male offspring.
  • The evolutionary pathways enabling non-MK bacteria to develop MK ability are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mechanisms by which bacteria evolve male-killing (MK) ability.
  • To explore the role of horizontal transmission in the evolution of MK bacteria.
  • To understand the conditions favoring the evolution and stability of MK bacterial strains.

Main Methods:

  • Mathematical modeling of bacterial transmission dynamics.
  • Analysis of host-parasite interactions under varying transmission efficiencies.
  • Simulations exploring evolutionary trajectories from non-MK to MK bacteria.

Main Results:

  • Horizontal transmission is a key mechanism enabling vertically transmitted bacteria to evolve efficient MK.
  • High vertical transmission efficacy favors the evolution of MK.
  • A 100% efficient MK strain can evolve from a horizontally transmitted ancestor and stably coexist only with non-MK strains.

Conclusions:

  • Horizontal transmission provides a viable evolutionary route for the development of male-killing bacteria.
  • The findings explain the observed high efficacy and diversity of MK bacteria in natural populations.
  • MK bacteria likely evolved independently multiple times across different insect taxa.
Keywords:
Wolbachiaadaptive dynamicshorizontal transmissionpopulation dynamicsreproductive parasitesex-ratio distortion

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