No variation for Wolbachia-induced hybrid breakdown in two populations of a spider mite

Abstract

Wolbachia are cytoplasmically transmitted bacteria that infect several species of mites. In the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch this symbiont can induce reproductive incompatibility. Wolbachia-induced reproductive incompatibility is observed in crosses between Wolbachia-infected (W) males and uninfected (U) females. This incompatibility is expressed in F1 broods as male-biased sex ratios, an effect called cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). However, in the two-spotted spider mite, Wolbachia-induced reproductive incompatibility may extend to the F2: broods of virgin F1 females from U x W crosses sometimes suffer increased mortality rates. This F2 effect is called hybrid breakdown (HB). Several isofemale lines derived from mites collected from rose and cucumber plants had been previously tested for CI. Here we report on the results obtained for HB.