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Abstract
Longitudinal microbial interactions within a host are challenging to study, leading to a focus on constructed microbial communities in vitro settings. Here, we take advantage of a naturally defined microbial community within a spider host to study how elevated temperatures influence microbial dynamics and phenotypes across host generations. The spider Mermessus fradeorum hosts up to five endosymbionts, including a Wolbachia strain, W1, which induces feminisation, causing genetic males to develop as phenotypic females, skewing sex ratios and promoting symbiont spread. Despite this, Wolbachia 1 persists at intermediate frequencies in wild populations. We hypothesised that elevated temperatures might reduce penetration of the feminisation phenotype, potentially by altering symbiont dynamics and maternal transmission. We exposed spiderlings co-infected with Wolbachia 1 to elevated temperatures for one generation and measured feminisation rate, symbiont transmission, and titre across three generations. Feminisation was unaffected in the exposed (F1) generation but declined in subsequent generations (F2, F3) that were not directly exposed. This multigenerational effect was linked to shifts in symbiont community dynamics: low feminisation coincided with high abundance of one symbiont, Rickettsiella, a decline in Wolbachia 1 transmission, and complete loss of another symbiont, Tisiphia. Our findings demonstrate how environmental history shapes the evolutionary stability of microbial communities and their induced phenotype in their natural host.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70371
Funding Information
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant 1953223), United States - Israel, Binational Science Foundation (BSF) (Grant 201697), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Grants 1020740, 7007679, 2023- 67012-39352) and Israel Science Foundation (Grant 2809/23).
Repository Citation
Mackevicius-Dubickaja, Virginija; White, Jennifer A.; Williams, Ellen E.; Klement, Eyal; Gottlieb, Yuval; and Doremus, Matthew R., "Elevated Temperatures Disrupt Wolbachia-Induced Feminisation and Reshape Microbial Community Dynamics Across Generations in a Spider Host" (2026). Entomology Faculty Publications. 265.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/entomology_facpub/265
Notes/Citation Information
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2026 The Author(s). Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.