Interaction of High Temperature Stress and Wolbachia Infection on the Biological Characteristic of Drosophila melanogaster

SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study explored the interaction effects of high temperature stress and Wolbachia infection on the biological characteristic of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Results showed that high temperature and Wolbachia infection had a two-way interaction effect on hatching rate, developmental durations, emergence rate, body weight and body length of F(1), F(2) and F(3) flies, and the interaction effect also existed on oviposition amount of F(3) flies, and on pupation rate of F(2) and F(3) flies. The study also showed that high temperature stress deceased the Wolbachia vertical transmission efficiency between generations, and both high temperature stress and Wolbachia infection can reduce the survival of D. melanogaster. The results indicated that high temperature stress and Wolbachia infection had negative effects on the growth and development of D. melanogaster. ABSTRACT: It was reported that temperature affects the distribution of Wolbachia in the host, but only a few papers reported the effect of the interaction between high temperature and Wolbachia on the biological characteristic of the host. Here, we set four treatment Drosophila melanogaster groups: Wolbachia-infected flies in 25 °C (W(+)M), Wolbachia-infected flies in 31 °C (W(+)H), Wolbachia-uninfected flies in 25 °C (W(-)M), Wolbachia-uninfected flies in 31 °C (W(-)H), and detected the interaction effect of temperature and Wolbachia infection on the biological characteristic of D. melanogaster in F(1), F(2) and F(3) generations. We found that both temperature and Wolbachia infection had significant effects on the development and survival rate of D. melanogaster. High temperature and Wolbachia infection had interaction effect on hatching rate, developmental durations, emergence rate, body weight and body length of F(1), F(2) and F(3) flies, and the interaction effect also existed on oviposition amount of F(3) flies, and on pupation rate of F(2) and F(3) flies. High temperature stress reduced the Wolbachia vertical transmission efficiency between generations. These results indicated that high temperature stress and Wolbachia infection had negative effects on the morphological development of D. melanogaster.