Data from: Migratory behavior of birds affects their coevolutionary relationship with blood parasites

Host traits, such as migratory behavior, could facilitate the dispersal of disease causing parasites, potentially leading to the transfer of infections both across geographic areas and between host species. There is however, little quantitative information on whether variation in such host attributes do indeed affect the evolutionary outcome of host-parasite associations. Here, we employ Leucocytozoon blood parasites of birds, a group of parasites closely related to avian malaria, to study host-parasite coevolution in relation to host behavior using a phylogenetic comparative approach. We reconstruct the molecular phylogenies of both the hosts and parasites and use cophylogenetic tools to assess whether each host-parasite association contributes significantly to the overall congruence between the two phylogenies. We find evidence for a significant fit between host and parasite phylogenies in this system, but show that this is due only to associations between non-migrant parasites and their hosts. We also show that migrant bird species harbor a greater genetic diversity of parasites compared with non-migrant species. Taken together, these results suggest that the migratory habits of birds could influence their coevolutionary relationship with their parasites, and that consideration of host traits is important in predicting the outcome of coevolutionary interactions.宿主性状（如迁徙行为）可促进致病寄生虫的扩散，进而可能在不同地理区域间以及宿主物种之间实现感染的转移。然而，目前关于这类宿主属性的变异是否确实会影响宿主-寄生虫关联的演化结局，尚无相关定量研究数据。本研究以与禽疟（avian malaria）亲缘关系密切的鸟类住白细胞虫（Leucocytozoon）血液寄生虫为研究对象，采用系统发育比较分析（phylogenetic comparative approach）方法，围绕宿主行为开展宿主-寄生虫共演化（coevolution）研究。我们分别重建了宿主与寄生虫的分子系统发育，并运用共系统发育分析工具（cophylogenetic tools），评估每组宿主-寄生虫关联是否对两类系统发育间的整体一致性存在显著贡献。研究结果显示，本研究体系中宿主与寄生虫的系统发育确实存在显著匹配，但这种匹配仅来源于非迁徙性寄生虫与其宿主的关联。此外，相较于留居鸟类，迁徙鸟类所携带的寄生虫遗传多样性更高。综合来看，上述结果表明鸟类的迁徙习性可能会影响其与寄生虫之间的共演化关系，同时也说明在预测共演化互作的结局时，宿主性状的考量至关重要。