Defensive insect symbiont leads to cascading extinctions and community collapse

Sanders Dirk, Kehoe Rachel, van Veen Frank, McLean Alisa, Godfray A. Charles J., Dicke Marcel, Gols Rieta, Frago Enric. 2016. Defensive insect symbiont leads to cascading extinctions and community collapse. Ecology Letters, 19 (7) : 789-799.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12616

Article de revue ; Article de recherche ; Article de revue à facteur d'impact

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Quartile : Outlier, Sujet : ECOLOGY

Résumé : Animals often engage in mutualistic associations with microorganisms that protect them from predation, parasitism or pathogen infection. Studies of these interactions in insects have mostly focussed on the direct effects of symbiont infection on natural enemies without studying community-wide effects. Here, we explore the effect of a defensive symbiont on population dynamics and species extinctions in an experimental community composed of three aphid species and their associated specialist parasitoids. We found that introducing a bacterial symbiont with a protective (but not a non-protective) phenotype into one aphid species led to it being able to escape from its natural enemy and increase in density. This changed the relative density of the three aphid species which resulted in the extinction of the two other parasitoid species. Our results show that defensive symbionts can cause extinction cascades in experimental communities and so may play a significant role in the stability of consumer-herbivore communities in the field.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : parasitoïde, Vicia faba, comportement animal, écologie animale, Megoura, relation hôte pathogène, Megoura viciae

Classification Agris : L20 - Écologie animale

Champ stratégique Cirad : Axe 4 (2014-2018) - Santé des animaux et des plantes

Agences de financement européennes : European Commission

Programme de financement européen : FP7

Projets sur financement : (EU) The role of insect symbionts in host plant use through their effect on plant-induced defenses

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