IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms15973.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The evolution of host-symbiont dependence

Author

Listed:
  • Roberta M. Fisher

    (Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit
    University of Oxford)

  • Lee M. Henry

    (School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London)

  • Charlie K. Cornwallis

    (Lund University)

  • E. Toby Kiers

    (Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit)

  • Stuart A. West

    (University of Oxford)

Abstract

Organisms across the tree of life form symbiotic partnerships with microbes for metabolism, protection and resources. While some hosts evolve extreme dependence on their symbionts, others maintain facultative associations. Explaining this variation is fundamental to understanding when symbiosis can lead to new higher-level individuals, such as during the evolution of the eukaryotic cell. Here we perform phylogenetic comparative analyses on 106 unique host–bacterial symbioses to test for correlations between symbiont function, transmission mode, genome size and host dependence. We find that both transmission mode and symbiont function are correlated with host dependence, with reductions in host fitness being greatest when nutrient-provisioning, vertically transmitted symbionts are removed. We also find a negative correlation between host dependence and symbiont genome size in vertically, but not horizontally, transmitted symbionts. These results suggest that both function and population structure are important in driving irreversible dependence between hosts and symbionts.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberta M. Fisher & Lee M. Henry & Charlie K. Cornwallis & E. Toby Kiers & Stuart A. West, 2017. "The evolution of host-symbiont dependence," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15973
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15973
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms15973?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eddleston, Kimberly A. & Jennings, Jennifer E., 2024. "Creating and sustaining mutualistic well-being: Toward a theory of family and business symbiosis," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15973. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.