Staff

Dominic Stalder

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Dominic Stalder

PhD Student

Department Aquatic Ecology

About Me

As part of my PhD in the Vorburger Lab, I focus on how environmental factors, particularly temperature, shape the relationship of the black bean aphid (Aphis fabae) and its defensive symbiont, Hamiltonella defensa (which can protect its host aphid from parasitoid wasps, here Lysiphlebus fabarum). By examining the influence of temperature on this host-symbiont interaction, I aim to explain seasonal and geographical patterns in symbiont prevalence and diversity.

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Curriculum Vitae

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Publications

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Hudson, C. M., Stalder, D., & Vorburger, C. (2024). Clines of resistance to parasitoids: the multifarious effects of temperature on defensive symbioses in insects. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 64, 101208 (6 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.cois.2024.101208, Institutional Repository

Insects are frequently infected with heritable bacterial endosymbionts. Some of them confer resistance to parasitoids. Such defensive symbionts are sensitive to variation in temperature. Drawing predominantly from the literature on aphids and flies, we show that temperature can affect the reliability of maternal transmission and the strength of protection provided by defensive symbionts. Costs of infection with defensive symbionts can also be temperature-dependent and may even turn into benefits under extreme temperatures, for example, when defensive symbionts increase heat tolerance. Alone or in combination, these mechanisms can drive temperature-associated (latitudinal) clines of infection prevalence with defensive symbionts. This has important consequences for host–parasitoid coevolution, as the relative importance of host-encoded vs. symbiont-provided defenses will shift along such clines.

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Address

E-Mail: dominic.stalder@eawag.ch
Phone: +41 58 765 5312
Fax: +41 58 765 1122
Address: Eawag
Überlandstrasse 133
8600 Dübendorf
Office: BU G19
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Research Group

Evolutionary Ecology Group (Vorburger Lab)

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Focalpoints

  • temperature-dependent adaptation of endosymbionts
  • environmental modulation of infection cost
  • coevolutionary dynamics and multiparty interactions
  • eco-evolutionary dynamics
  • lifecycle evolution

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