Seasonal wild dance of dual endosymbionts in the pear psyllid Cacopsylla pyricola (Hemiptera: Psylloidea): Endosymbiont titers tell two different stories

Abstract

Abstract Most sap-feeding insects maintain obligate relationships with endosymbiotic bacteria that provide their hosts with essential nutrients. However, knowledge about the dynamics of endosymbiont titers across seasons in natural host populations is scarce. Here, we used quantitative PCR to investigate the seasonal dynamics of the dual endosymbionts “Candidatus Carsonella ruddii” and “Ca. Psyllophila symbiotica” in a natural population of the pear psyllid Cacopsylla pyricola (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Psyllidae). Psyllid individuals were collected across an entire year, covering both summer and overwintering generations. Immatures harboured the highest titers of both endosymbionts, while the lowest endosymbiont density was observed in males. The density of Carsonella remained high and relatively stable across the vegetative period of the pear trees, but its density significantly dropped during the non-vegetative period, overlapping with C. pyricola’s reproductive diapause. In contrast, the titer of Psyllophila was consistently higher than Carsonella’s and exhibited fluctuations throughout the sampling year, which might be related to host age. Despite a tightly integrated metabolic complementarity between Carsonella and Psyllophila, our findings highlight differences in their density dynamics throughout the year, that might be linked to their metabolic roles at different life stages of the host.