Data from: Identification of an early male-killing agent in the oriental tea tortrix, Homona magnanima

Arthropods are frequently infected with inherited symbionts, which
sometimes confer fitness benefits on female hosts or manipulate host
reproduction. Early male killing, in which infected males die during
embryogenesis, is induced by some bacteria, such as Wolbachia and
Spiroplasma. A female-biased sex ratio has been found in Homona magnanima,
collected from a tea plantation in Japan. Here, we examined the
male-killing trait in H. magnanima and identified the agent that induces
early male killing. The sex ratio distortion (SR) strain produced only
females and no males, and its egg hatch rate was significantly lower than
that of the normal (N) strain. The N strain was infected with only
Wolbachia, whereas the SR strain was infected with both Wolbachia and
Spiroplasma. Antibiotic treatment with 0.10% tetracycline restored the 1:1
sex ratio in the SR strain. Females treated with 0.05% tetracycline were
positive for Spiroplasma but not for Wolbachia and showed a female-biased
sex ratio, whereas Wolbachia-positive females did not revert to male
killing. When inoculated with a homogenate of the SR strain female,
females infected with only Spiroplasma produced female-biased offspring.
Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that Spiroplasma sp. of H.
magnanima belonged to the ixodetis clade. These results indicate that
Spiroplasma was responsible for male killing in H. magnanima. Late male
killing is induced in H. magnanima by an RNA-like virus, and therefore
this is the first case in which different male-killing agents expressed at
different times in the life cycle have been found within one host species.