Present address: Laboratoire de Bactériologie, Faculté de Médecine Lyon Est, site Laennec, INSERM U851, équipe Pathogénie Bactérienne et Immunité Innée, Rue Guillaume Paradin 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France.
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LETTER
An inherited virus influences the coexistence of parasitoid species through behaviour manipulation
Article first published online: 4 APR 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01774.x
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS
Additional Information
How to Cite
Patot, S., Allemand, R., Fleury, F. and Varaldi, J. (2012), An inherited virus influences the coexistence of parasitoid species through behaviour manipulation. Ecology Letters, 15: 603–610. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01774.x
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Present address: Laboratoire de Bactériologie, Faculté de Médecine Lyon Est, site Laennec, INSERM U851, équipe Pathogénie Bactérienne et Immunité Innée, Rue Guillaume Paradin 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France.
Publication History
- Issue published online: 7 MAY 2012
- Article first published online: 4 APR 2012
- Editor, Minus van Baalen Manuscript received 26 December 2011 First decision made 31 January 2012 Manuscript accepted 8 March 2012
Keywords:
- Behaviour;
- coexistence;
- competition;
- egg load;
- keystone parasite;
- manipulation;
- parasitoid;
- superparasitism;
- symbiont;
- virus
Ecology Letters (2012)
Abstract
The potential role of pathogens or parasites in maintaining species coexistence is well documented. However, the impact of vertically transmitted symbionts, that can markedly modify their host’s biology, is largely unknown. Some females of the Drosophila parasitoid Leptopilina boulardi are infected with an inherited virus (LbFV). The virus forces females to lay supernumerary eggs in already parasitised hosts, thus allowing its horizontal transmission. Using two independent experimental procedures, we found that LbFV impacts inter-specific competition between L. boulardi and the related L. heterotoma. While L. boulardi rapidly outcompetes L. heterotoma in the absence of the virus, L. heterotoma was able to maintain or even to eliminate L. boulardi in the presence of LbFV. By forcing females to superparasitise, LbFV induced egg wastage in L. boulardi thus explaining its impact on the competition outcome. We conclude that this symbiont whose transmission is L. boulardi-density-dependant may affect the coexistence of Leptopilina species.