Abstract
Temperature plays a fundamental role in host-pathogen interactions. Wolbachia is an endosymbiont that infects about 40% of arthropod species, which can affect host behaviour and reproduction. The effect of Wolbachia on host thermoregulatory behaviour is largely unknown. Here, we used a thermal gradient to test whether Drosophila melanogaster infected with Wolbachia exhibit different temperature preferences (Tp) to uninfected flies. We found that Wolbachia-infected flies preferred a cooler mean temperature (Tp = 25.06±0.25°C) than uninfected flies (Tp = 25.78±0.24°C). Our finding suggests that Wolbachia-infected hosts might seek out cooler microclimates to reduce exposure to and lessen the consequences of high temperatures.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Posted June 21, 2018.
