Fellowship: Too Hot to Handle: How Will the Changing Climate Affect Heritable Symbionts of a Generalist Predator Guild?

Abstract Arthropods play major roles in plant health and production by acting as biological control agents or crop pests. Arthropods also host heritable bacterial symbionts that mediate species interactions and affect host reproduction. High temperatures can destabilize microbial symbioses by reducing transmission efficacy and phenotype penetrance, and the predicted increase in global temperatures has unclear consequences for heritable symbionts and their arthropod hosts. Linyphiid spiders are an important yet understudied guild of generalist biological control agents and emerging models for studying heritable symbioses. This proposal will use field surveys, laboratory-based experiments, and genome analyses to address three questions: 1) Does climate shape symbiont frequency in US linyphiid spider populations? 2) Does temperature stress destabilize heritable symbioses? 3) Do symbiont genomes encode responses to temperature stress? Results will reveal how climate influences linyphiid symbionts and will establish an independent system for studying symbioses. This research will further characterize the role of symbionts in arthropod biology, and how climate change will affect these widespread symbioses. This project addresses the AFRI postdoctoral program goal of cultivating future independent researchers that can solve emerging agricultural challenges, including agricultural climate adaptation, by providing training in technical, pedagogical, and management skills. This project also meets the AFRI EWD program goals of advancing fundamental agricultural research by funding postdoctoral research on beneficial arthropod species associated with agricultural systems. Ultimately, this project will prepare the PD to lead an independent research program studying symbioses of agriculturally-relevant arthropods at a tenure-track position in a research institution.