Speaker
Description
Symbionts are integral to arthropod biology, profoundly shaping their hosts' phenotypic traits and playing a pivotal role in speciation. While these associations can be costly for insect hosts, they are typically stable and maternally transmitted with high fidelity. However, the absence of co-cladogenesis suggests that many symbiont-host relationships are transient over evolutionary timescales, necessitating recurrent establishment in new/novel hosts via "host shifting." These host shifts are critical evolutionary events, influencing both host and symbiont dynamics.
My experiment focused on the evolutionary trajectory of Spiroplasma and their effect on host biology. I employed an experimental evolution approach to investigate the impacts of symbionts on host biology via host shifting, including longevity, sex-ratio distortion, and life history traits. My study involved transfecting various strains of the rapidly evolving bacteria Spiroplasma into non-native Drosophila host species spanning 24 Drosophila generations.
Phenotypic effects were assessed through fecundity and longevity assays conducted at different experimental stages. Spiroplasma will be sequenced by short and long reads, providing insights into genetic variations and their associated phenotypic trait change.
I anticipate observing changes in host biology due to the influence of different Spiroplasma strains, with expected variability in phenotype and genotype within replicates as the experiment progresses. These findings will elucidate how host shifting affects symbiont evolution in novel hosts, enhancing our understanding of the remarkable diversity and prevalence of inherited symbionts in arthropods. This research offers valuable insights into the evolutionary dynamics underpinning host-symbiont relationships and will further illuminate the "Red Queen hypothesis" of rapid co-evolution, where hosts and symbionts continuously counter-evolve.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
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