A field cage test of the effects of the endosymbiont Wolbachia on Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Wolbachia endosymbionts are known to affect the fitness of their hosts, but most of this information is from laboratory studies. In Drosophila melanogaster, Wolbachia frequencies vary clinically in frequency in Australia and may confound climatic adaptation. Here we use field cages in a reciprocal exchange design to test for Wolbachia effects in D. melanogaster in winter at temperate and tropical sites. Infected flies of both populations had a lower fecundity in tropical north Queensland, whilst in temperate southern Victoria Wolbachia effects depended on the nuclear population background. Here infected flies from Victoria were more fecund. Wolbachia also influenced larval/pupal viability in..