Title |
Experimental evolution of specialization by a microsporidian parasite
|
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Published in |
BMC Ecology and Evolution, May 2010
|
DOI | 10.1186/1471-2148-10-159 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Mathieu Legros, Jacob C Koella |
Abstract |
Evolutionary theory predicts that the pressure for parasites to specialize on one host or to become generalists on a wide range of hosts is driven by the diversity or temporal variability of the host's population and by genetic trade-offs in the adaptation to different hosts. We give experimental evidence for this idea by letting the parasite Brachiola algerae evolve on one of four genetically homogeneous lines of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, on a mixture of the four lines or on an alternating sequence of the four lines. The first regime was expected to lead to specialists, the other two to generalists. After 13 generations, we tested the evolved parasites on each of the four lines of the mosquito. |
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Researcher | 22 | 21% |
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Professor | 5 | 5% |
Other | 17 | 16% |
Unknown | 10 | 10% |
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Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science | 1 | <1% |
Other | 5 | 5% |
Unknown | 13 | 12% |