ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2015
Rapid evolution of virulence leading to host extinction under host-parasite coevolution.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microsporidia: evolution, infection mechanisms and host impact.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Intergenomic signatures of coevolution between Tasmanian devils and an infectious cancer.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Increased virulence due to multiple infection inParasitology · 2024Article
- Interspecific host competition and parasite virulence evolution.Biology letters · 2023Article
- The roles of environmental variation and parasite survival in virulence-transmission relationships.Royal Society open science · 2021Review
- Introduced parasite changes host phenotype, mating signal and hybridization risk: Philornis downsi effects on Darwin's finch song.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- A Vavraia-like microsporidium as the cause of deadly infection in threatened and endangered Eurycea salamanders in the United States.Parasites & vectors · 2019Article
- Small RNA AvrA Regulates IscR to Increase the Stress Tolerances in SmpB Deficiency ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2019Article
- Social dilemma in the external immune system of the red flour beetle? It is a matter of time.Ecology and evolution · 2017Article
- Phenotypic shift inProceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Microbe-mediated host defence drives the evolution of reduced pathogen virulence.Nature communications · 2016Article
- Ecological conditions determine extinction risk in co-evolving bacteria-phage populations.BMC evolutionary biology · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHost-parasite coevolution is predicted to result in changes in the virulence of the parasite in order to maximise its reproductive success and transmission potential, either via direct host-to-host transfer or through the environment. The majority of coevolution experiments, however, do not allow for environmental transmission or persistence of long lived parasite stages, in spite of the fact that these may be critical for the evolutionary success of spore forming parasites under natural conditions. We carried out a coevolution experiment using the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, and its natural microsporidian parasite, Paranosema whitei. Beetles and their environment, inclusive of spores released into it, were transferred from generation to generation. We additionally took a modelling approach to further assess the importance of transmissive parasite stages on virulence evolution.
resultsIn all parasite treatments of the experiment, coevolution resulted in extinction of the host population, with a pronounced increase in virulence being seen. Our modelling approach highlighted the presence of environmental transmissive parasite stages as being critical to the trajectory of virulence evolution in this system.
conclusionsThe extinction of host populations was unexpected, particularly as parasite virulence is often seen to decrease in host-parasite coevolution. This, in combination with the increase in virulence and results obtained from the model, suggest that the inclusion of transmissive parasite stages is important to improving our understanding of virulence evolution.
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