Many microbial symbionts have multiple phenotypic consequences for their animal hosts. However, the ways in which different symbiont-mediated phenotypes combine to affect fitness are not well understood. We investigated whether there are correlations between different symbiont-mediated phenotypes. We used the symbiont Spiroplasma, a striking example of a bacterial symbiont conferring diverse phenotypes on insect hosts. We took 11 strains of Spiroplasma infecting pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) and assessed their ability to provide protection against the fungal pathogen Pandora neoaphidis and the parasitoids Aphidius ervi and Praon volucre. We also assessed effects on male offspring production for five of the Spiroplasma strains. All but one of the Spiroplasma strains provided very strong protection against the parasitoid P. volucre. As previously reported, variable protection against P. neoaphidis and A. ervi was also present; male-killing was likewise a variable phenotype. We find no evidence of any correlation, positive or negative, between the different phenotypes, nor was there any evidence of an effect of symbiont phylogeny on protective phenotype. We conclude that multiple symbiont-mediated phenotypes can evolve independently from one another without trade-offs between them.

Dataset comprises the raw data collected for the associated published manuscript, and methods are as described in that publication.

Resistance to Aphidius ervi: Spiroplasma_Aphidius_data_txt

Raw data collected on effects of Spiroplasma strains on aphid resistance to Aphidius ervi. The heading 'block' refers to the temporal block and 'replicate' to a single dish of aphids attacked by a single female parasitoid. 

Resistance to Pandora neoaphidis: Spiroplasma_Pandora_data_txt

Raw data collected on effects of Spiroplasma strains on aphid resistance to Pandora neoaphidis. D0 = number of aphids exposed to fungus; D2, D4 ... D8 = number of aphids surviving on day 2, day 4 ... day 8 post-exposure.

Resistance to Praon volucre: Spiroplasma_Praon_data_txt

Raw data collected on effects of Spiroplasma strains on aphid resistance to Praon volucre. The heading 'block' refers to the temporal block and 'replicate' to a single dish of aphids attacked by a single female parasitoid. 

Male-killing: Spiroplasma_male_killing_da...

Raw data collected on effects of Spiroplasma strains on male offspring production.