SynthesisBiology letters2022
Parasitism shapes selection by drastically reducing host fitness and increasing host fitness variation.
Synthesis in Biology letters, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analysis finds large variation but no general patterns in the relationship between climate and parasitism in terrestrial animals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Pooled it
- Parasitism shapes selection by drastically reducing host fitness and increasing host fitness variation.Biology letters · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- Why we need more individual-based parasite research.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Red Pandas From Community Forests of Eastern Nepal.Veterinary medicine and science · 2026Article
- Parallel elevational replacement of hosts and parasites in a highly susceptible songbird genus.Oecologia · 2026Article
- Scoop That Poop: Optimising Faecal Sample Pre-Processing for Parasite Metabarcoding.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Blood Parasite Infections and Impacts on Avian Health and Reproduction.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer.Heredity · 2025Article
- Landscape structure as a driver of eco-evolution in host-parasite systems.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer.Parasitology · 2025Article
- Parasite Infections Influence Immunological Responses But Not Reproductive Success of Male Hellbender Salamanders (Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Higher body condition with infection byPeerJ · 2024Article
- Chigger mite (Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Definitions of parasitism, considering its potentially opposing effects at different levels of hierarchical organization.Parasitology · 2023Review
- The characterization of toll-like receptor repertoire inEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Interspecific host competition and parasite virulence evolution.Biology letters · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Determining the effects of parasites on host reproduction is key to understanding how parasites affect the underpinnings of selection on hosts. Although infection is expected to be costly, reducing mean fitness, infection could also increase variation in fitness costs among hosts, both of which determine the potential for selection on hosts. To test these ideas, we used a phylogenetically informed meta-analysis of 118 studies to examine how changes in the mean and variance in the outcome of reproduction differed between parasitized and non-parasitized hosts. We found that parasites had severe negative effects on mean fitness, with parasitized hosts suffering reductions in fecundity, viability and mating success. Parasite infection also increased variance in reproduction, particularly fecundity and offspring viability. Surprisingly, parasites had similar effects on viability when either the male or female was parasitized. These results not only provide the first synthetic, comparative, and quantitative summary of the strong deleterious effects of parasites on host reproductive fitness, but also reveal a consistent role for parasites in shaping the opportunity for selection.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.