Coexistence of cytoplasmic incompatibility and male-killing-inducing endosymbionts, and their impact on host gene flow

Male-killing (MK) and cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) inducing bacteria are among the most common endosymbionts of arthropods. Previous theoretical research has demonstrated that these two types of endosymbionts cannot stably coexist within a single unstructured host population if no doubly infected host individuals occur. Here, we analyse a model of two host subpopulations connected by migration. We demonstrate that coexistence of MK- and CI-inducing endosymbionts is possible if migration rates are sufficiently low. In particular, our results suggest that for coexistence to be possible, migration rates into the subpopulation infected predominantly with MK-inducing endosymbionts must be considerably low, while migration rates from the MK- to the CI-infected subpopulation can be very high. We also analyse how the presence of MK- and CI-inducing endosymbionts affects host gene flow between the two subpopulations. Employing the concept of the ‘effective migration rate’, we demonstrate that compared with an uninfected subdivided population, gene flow is increased towards the MK-infected island, but decreased towards the CI-infected island. We discuss our results with respect to the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina, in which infection polymorphism of CI- and MK-inducing Wolbachia has been reported across South-Pacific island populations.