Wolbachia, Cardinium and climate: an analysis of global data

Abstract

Bacterial secondary symbionts are very common in terrestrial arthropods, but infection levels vary widely among populations. Experiments and within-species comparisons both suggest that environmental temperature might be important in explaining this variation. To investigate the importance of temperature, at broad geographical and taxonomic scales, we extended a global database of terrestrial arthropods screened for Wolbachia and Cardinium. Our final data set contained data from 114,297 arthropods (>2,500 species) screened for Wolbachia and 17,011 arthropods (>800 species) screened for Cardinium, including population samples from 137 different countries, and with mean temperatures varying from - 6.5 to 29.2°C. In insects and relatives, Cardinium infection showed a clear and consistent tendency to increase with temperature. For Wolbachia, a tendency to increase with temperature in temperate climates, is counteracted by reduced prevalence in the tropics, resulting in a weak negative trend overall. We discuss the implications of these results for natural and introduced symbionts, in regions affected by climate change.