High temperatures reduce growth, infection, and transmission of a naturally occurring fungal plant pathogen

Climate change is rapidly altering the distribution of suitable habitats for many species as well as their pathogenic microbes. For many pathogens, including vector-borne diseases of humans and agricultural pathogens, climate change is expected to increase transmission and lead to pathogen range expansions. However, if pathogens have a lower heat tolerance than their host, increased warming could generate ‘thermal refugia’ for hosts. Predicting the outcomes of warming on disease transmission requires detailed knowledge of the thermal tolerances of both the host and the pathogen. Such thermal tolerance studies are generally lacking for fungal pathogens of wild plant populations, despite the fact that plants form the base of all terrestrial communities. Here, we quantified three aspects of the thermal tolerance (growth, infection, and propagule production) of the naturally occurring fungal pathogen Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae, which causes a sterilizing anther-smut disease on the herbaceous plant Silene latifolia. We also quantified two aspects of host thermal tolerance: seedling survival and flowering rate. We found that temperatures >30 degreeC reduced the ability of anther-smut spores to germinate, grow, and conjugate in vitro. In addition, we found that high temperatures (30 degreeC) during, or shortly after the time of inoculation strongly reduced the likelihood of infection in seedlings. Finally, we found that high summer temperatures in the field temporarily cured infected plants, likely reducing transmission. Notably, high temperatures did not reduce survival or flowering of the host plants. Taken together, our results show that the fungus is considerably more sensitive to high temperatures than its host plant. A warming climate could therefore result in reduced disease spread or even local pathogen extirpation, leading to thermal refugia for the host.

Methods
Data was collected in three separate sets of expeirments:

1) In vitro assays of pathogen germination, growth, and conjugation in growth chambers set to different temperature

2) Greenhouse inoculaiton expeirment of S. latifolia seedlings at different temperature treatments

3) A field experiment, where diseased plants were monitored for signs of heat-curing over the course of one summer field season.