Wolbachia endosymbiont is essential for egg hatching in a parthenogenetic arthropod

Wolbachia pipientis can induce a range of sex ratio distortions including parthenogenesis. Recently Wolbachia has been detected in the diploid, parthenogenetic, collembolan species Folsomia candida. In this paper we address the effect of Wolbachia on reproduction in F. candida. Wolbachia infection was removed by antibiotic and heat treatment, and quantitative PCR techniques confirmed the success of the treatments. Complete loss of Wolbachia-infection led to the production of normal clutch sizes, but was associated with full egg hatching failure. Our results demonstrate that F. candida is strictly dependent on Wolbachia to produce viable offspring. This is one of the few cases of obligatory Wolbachia infection in arthropods. Our data suggest a unique mechanism underlying Wolbachia-dependence of egg development. One of our more salient results is that hatching success increased in consecutive egg clutches of antibiotic-treated individuals, probably due to restoration of bacterial densities over time. These observations suggest that reproduction in F. candida is a threshold effect requiring a critical Wolbachia density as is hypothesized by the bacterial dosage model. Quantitative PCR analysis showed that heat or antibiotic treated individuals with egg hatching failure had low average bacterial densities, but bacterial densities were not significantly different from those of treated individuals with successfully eclosing eggs. Additional experiments with partially cured F. candida are needed to prove the dosage model.