Verified and potential pathogens of predatory mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

Several species of phytoseiid mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae), including species of the genera Amblyseius, Galendromus, Metaseiulus, Neoseiulus, Phytoseiulus and Typhlodromus, are currently reared for biological control of various crop pests and/or as model organisms for the study of predator¿prey interactions. Pathogen-free phytoseiid mites are important to obtain high efficacy in biological pest control and to get reliable data in mite research, as pathogens may affect the performance of their host or alter their reproduction and behaviour. Potential and verified pathogens have been reported for phytoseiid mites during the past 25 years. The present review provides an overview, including potential pathogens with unknown host effects (17 reports), endosymbiotic Wolbachia (seven reports), other bacteria (including Cardinium and Spiroplasma) (four reports), cases of unidentified diseases (three reports) and cases of verified pathogens (six reports). From the latter group four reports refer to Microsporidia, one to a fungus and one to a bacterium. Only five entities have been studied in detail, including Wolbachia infecting seven predatory mite species, other endosymbiotic bacteria infecting Metaseiulus (Galendromus, Typhlodromus) occidentalis (Nesbitt), the bacterium Acaricomes phytoseiuli infecting Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot, the microsporidium Microsporidium phytoseiuli infecting P. persimilis and the microsporidium Oligosproridium occidentalis infecting M. occidentalis. In four cases (Wolbachia, A. phytoseiuli, M. phytoseiuli and O. occidentalis) an infection may be connected with fitness costs of the host. Moreover, infection is not always readily visible as no obvious gross symptoms are present. Monitoring of these entities on a routine and continuous basis should therefore get more attention, especially in commercial mass-production. Special attention should be paid to field-collected mites before introduction into the laboratory or mass rearing, and to mites that are exchanged among rearing facilities. However, at present general pathogen monitoring is not yet practical as effects of many entities are unknown. More research effort is needed concerning verified and potential pathogens of commercially reared arthropods and those used as model organisms in research

Wolbachia-Induced Unidirectional Cytoplasmic Incompatibility and Speciation: Mainland-Island Model

Bacteria of the genus Wolbachia are among the most common endosymbionts in the world. In many insect species these bacteria induce a sperm-egg incompatibility between the gametes of infected males and uninfected females, commonly called unidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). It is generally believed that unidirectional CI cannot promote speciation in hosts because infection differences between populations will be unstable and subsequent gene flow will eliminate genetic differences between diverging populations. In the present study we investigate this question theoretically in a mainland-island model with migration from mainland to island. Our analysis shows that (a) the infection polymorphism is stable below a critical migration rate, (b) an (initially) uninfected “island” can better maintain divergence at a selected locus (e.g. can adapt locally) in the presence of CI, and (c) unidirectional CI selects for premating isolation in (initially) uninfected island populations if they receive migration from a Wolbachia-infected mainland. Interestingly, premating isolation is most likely to evolve if levels of incompatibility are intermediate and if either the infection causes fecundity reductions or Wolbachia transmission is incomplete. This is because under these circumstances an infection pattern with an infected mainland and a mostly uninfected island can persist in the face of comparably high migration. We present analytical results for all three findings: (a) a lower estimation of the critical migration rate in the presence of local adaptation, (b) an analytical approximation for the gene flow reduction caused by unidirectional CI, and (c) a heuristic formula describing the invasion success of mutants at a mate preference locus. These findings generally suggest that Wolbachia-induced unidirectional CI can be a factor in divergence and speciation of hosts

Infectious Speciation Revisited: Impact of Symbiont-Depletion on Female Fitness and Mating Behavior of Drosophila paulistorum

The neotropical Drosophila paulistorum superspecies, consisting of at least six geographically overlapping but reproductively isolated semispecies, has been the object of extensive research since at least 1955, when it was initially trapped mid-evolution in flagrant statu nascendi. In this classic system females express strong premating isolation patterns against mates belonging to any other semispecies, and yet uncharacterized microbial reproductive tract symbionts were described triggering hybrid inviability and male sterility. Based on theoretical models and limited experimental data, prime candidates fostering symbiont-driven speciation in arthropods are intracellular bacteria belonging to the genus Wolbachia. They are maternally inherited symbionts of many arthropods capable of manipulating host reproductive biology for their own benefits. However, it is an ongoing debate as to whether or not reproductive symbionts are capable of driving host speciation in nature and if so, to what extent. Here we have reevaluated this classic case of infectious speciation by means of present day molecular approaches and artificial symbiont depletion experiments. We have isolated the α-proteobacteria Wolbachia as the maternally transmitted core endosymbionts of all D. paulistorum semispecies that have coevolved towards obligate mutualism with their respective native hosts. In hybrids, however, these mutualists transform into pathogens by overreplication causing embryonic inviability and male sterility. We show that experimental reduction in native Wolbachia titer causes alterations in sex ratio, fecundity, and mate discrimination. Our results indicate that formerly designated Mycoplasma-like organisms are most likely Wolbachia that have evolved by becoming essential mutualistic symbionts in their respective natural hosts; they have the potential to trigger pre- and postmating isolation. Furthermore, in light of our new findings, we revisit the concept of infectious speciation and discuss potential mechanisms that can restrict or promote symbiont-induced speciation at post- and prezygotic levels in nature and under artificial laboratory conditions

Detection and Characterization of Wolbachia Infections in Natural Populations of Aphids: Is the Hidden Diversity Fully Unraveled?

Aphids are a serious threat to agriculture, despite being a rather small group of insects. The about 4,000 species worldwide engage in highly interesting and complex relationships with their microbial fauna. One of the key symbionts in arthropods is Wolbachia, an α-Proteobacterium implicated in many important biological processes and believed to be a potential tool for biological control. Aphids were thought not to harbour Wolbachia; however, current data suggest that its presence in aphids has been missed, probably due to the low titre of the infection and/or to the high divergence of the Wolbachia strains of aphids. The goal of the present study is to map the Wolbachia infection status of natural aphids populations, along with the characterization of the detected Wolbachia strains. Out of 425 samples from Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel and Iran, 37 were found to be infected. Our results, based mainly on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, indicate the presence of two new Wolbachia supergroups prevailing in aphids, along with some strains belonging either to supergroup B or to supergroup A

Myocardial Delineation via Registration in a Polar Coordinate System

This paper describes a technique for automatic analysis of dynamic magnetic resonance images of the left ventricle using a non-rigid registration algorithm. Short axis cine images were re-sampled into polar coordinates before all the time frames were aligned using a non-rigid registration algorithm. An manually delineated contour of a single phase was propagated through the dynamic sequence. Two variants of this approach were investigated and compared with manual delineation of all phases, and with the commercially available automatic MASS package. The results showed good correlation with manual delineation and produced fewer erroneous results than the commercial package

Genetics of postzygotic isolation and Haldane's rule in haplodiploids

The process of speciation has puzzled scientists for decades, but only recently they have they been able to reveal the genetic basis of reproductive isolation. Much emphasis has been on Haldane's rule, the observation that the heterogametic sex often suffers more from hybridization than the homogametic sex. Most research on Haldane's rule has focused on diploid organisms with chromosomal sex determination. We argue that species lacking chromosomal sex determination, such as haplodiploids, also follow Haldane's rule and thus should be included in the definition of this rule. We provide evidence for Haldane's rule in Nasonia wasps and describe how haplodiploids can be used to test the different theories that have been proposed to explain Haldane's rule. We discuss how the faster-male and faster-X theories can shape speciation differently in haplodiploids compared to diploids