Modeling the ecology of symbiont-mediated protection against parasites.

AbstractThere is increasing evidence that many maternally transmitted symbionts protect their hosts against parasites, thus ensuring their own persistence. Despite the protection they provide, such symbionts are typically found in only a fraction of the host population. This suggests that symbiont-conferred resistance is costly or that the maternal inheritance of symbionts is not perfect. To investigate these hypotheses and other properties of this complex ecological system, we develop a mathematical model based on the example of bacterial endosymbionts that protect aphids against parasitoid wasps. Simulations show that in the absence of more complex effects, a very fine balance between the costs of harboring symbionts and the strength of protection they provide is required to maintain coexistence of protected and unprotected hosts. These constraints are significantly relaxed and coexistence becomes a common outcome if deployment of symbiont-provided defenses upon a parasite attack entails an additional (...