Genetic independence of naturally correlated variation in resistance to endemic and novel pathogens

With anther-smut disease from wild populations, we used selection experiments and genetic analyses to show that, although positively correlated, novel and endemic-pathogen resistances are genetically independent, with contrasting modes of inheritance.  We demonstrate that polymorphic resistance to a newly introduced disease is genetically determined and not an extension of defenses against the related endemic pathogen, challenging the conventional view of nonhost resistance., Data were collected from greenhouse-grown plants of Silene vulgaris, assessing their infection status after inoculation with the fungal pathogen, Microbotryum sp.  Data are presented as counts of healthy or diseased plants, without other processing., , # Independence of natural variation in resistance to endemic and novel pathogens.

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3n5tb2rs4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3n5tb2rs4)

The submitted data were generated from inoculations experiments with *Silene vulgaris* across three generations (G1 to G3) of a recurrent selection experiment.  The recurrent selection approach was used to derive *S. vulgaris* lineages with specific combinations of resistances to the endemic (*Microbotryum silenes-inflatae*) and novel (*Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae*) pathogens.  Recurrent selection involves cycles of phenotyping and recombination among selected individuals while maintaining genetic variability within the selected populations.  In this study, the recurrent selection was performed on four groups selecting for different phenotypic combinations of resistance levels to the endemic and novel pathogens, namely, resistant to both pathogens (RR), susceptible to both pathogens (SS), resistant to the endemic and su...