Short-term fitness consequences of parasitism depend on host genotype and within-host parasite community

Multi-parasite communities inhabiting individual hosts are common and often consist of parasites from multiple taxa. The effects of parasite community composition and complexity on host fitness are critical for understanding how host-parasite coevolution is affected by parasite diversity. To test how naturally-occurring parasites affect host fitness of multiple host genotypes, we performed a common-garden experiment where we inoculated four genotypes of host plant Plantago lanceolata with six microbial parasite treatments: three single parasite treatments, a fungal mixture, a viral mixture, and a cross-kingdom treatment. Seed production was affected by both host genotype and parasite treatment, and their interaction jointly determined growth of the hosts. Fungal parasites had more consistent negative effects than viruses in both single mixed parasite treatments. These results demonstrate that parasite communities have the potential to affect the evolution and ecology of host populations..., Please see the associated publication for the data collection methods.,