Tripartite associations among bacteriophage WO, Wolbachia, and host affected by temperature and age in Tetranychus urticae.

A phage density model of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), which means lytic phages reduce bacterial density associated with CI, significantly enhances our understanding of the tripartite associations among bacteriophage WO, Wolbachia and host. However, WO may alternate between lytic and lysogenic life cycles or change phage production under certain conditions including temperature, host age and host species background. Here, extreme temperatures can induce an alteration in the life cycle of WO and change the tripartite associations among WO, Wolbachia and CI. Based on the accumulation of the WO load, WO can transform into the lytic life cycle with increasing age. These findings confirmed that the environment plays an important role in the associations among WO, Wolbachia and host.