Pathogen contingency loci and the evolution of host specificity: Simple sequence repeats mediate Bartonella adaptation to a wild rodent host.

ABSTRACT: Parasites, including pathogens, can adapt to better exploit their hosts on many scales, ranging from within an infection of a single individual to series of infections spanning multiple host species. However, little is known about how the genomes of parasites in natural communities evolve when they face diverse hosts. We investigated how Bartonella bacteria that circulate in rodent communities in the dunes of the Negev Desert in Israel adapt to different species of rodent hosts. We propagated 15 Bartonella populations through infections of either a single host species (Gerbillus andersoni or Gerbillus pyramidum) or alternating between the two. After 20 rodent passages, strains with de novo mutations replaced the ancestor in most populations. Mutations in two mononucleotide simple sequence

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Pastor R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11466379 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature