Rapid adaptation to a globally introduced virulent pathogen in a keystone species.

ABSTRACT: Emerging infectious diseases are one of the foremost contemporary threats to biodiversity conservation. Outbreaks of novel pathogens can lead to the extinction of host populations, loss of gene flow due to extirpation, and bottlenecks in host populations with surviving individuals. In outbreaks with survivors, pathogens can exert strong selection on hosts, in some cases leading to the evolution of resistance or tolerance in the host population. The pathogen causing sylvatic plague, Yersinia pestis, was introduced to North America in the early 1900s and caused widespread population declines in prairie dogs (genus Cynomys), which experience >95% mortality during epizootics. Recently, survival from plague was documented in a small number of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys

SUBMITTER: Cassin-Sackett L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12235602 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature