Local adaptation at higher trophic levels: contrasting hyperparasite-pathogen infection dynamics in the field and laboratory

Predicting and controlling infectious disease epidemics is a major challenge facing the management of agriculture, human and wildlife health. Coevolutionarily derived patterns of local adaptation among pathogen populations have the potential to generate variation in disease epidemiology, however studies of local adaptation in disease systems have mostly focused on interactions between competing pathogens or pathogens and their hosts. In nature, parasites and pathogens are also subject to attack by hyperparasitic natural enemies that can severely impact upon their infection dynamics. However, few studies have investigated if this interaction varies across combinations of pathogen-hyperparasite strains, and if this influences hyperparasite incidence in natural pathogen populations. Here, we test if the association between a hyperparasitic fungus, Ampelomyces quisqualis, and a single powdery mildew host, Podosphaera plantaginis, varies among genotype combinations, and whether this drives h...

预测与防控传染病流行，是农业、人类与野生动物健康管理领域面临的重大挑战。病原体种群间经协同演化形成的局部适应模式，可能引发疾病流行病学特征的变异；但当前疾病系统中的局部适应研究，大多聚焦于竞争病原体之间，或是病原体与其宿主的相互作用。在自然环境中，寄生物与病原体还会遭受重寄生性天敌的攻击，这类天敌可对其感染动态产生显著负面影响。然而，鲜有研究探讨此类相互作用是否会因病原体-重寄生物菌株的组合不同而产生差异，以及该差异是否会影响自然病原体种群中的重寄生发生率。本研究旨在检验：重寄生真菌（Ampelomyces quisqualis）与单一种白粉菌宿主（Podosphaera plantaginis）之间的关联，是否会随基因型组合的不同而发生变化，以及该关联是否会驱动h……