Adaptation to abiotic conditions drives local adaptation in bacteria and viruses coevolving in heterogeneous environments.

ABSTRACT: Parasite local adaptation, the greater performance of parasites on their local compared with foreign hosts, has important consequences for the maintenance of diversity and epidemiology. While the abiotic environment may significantly affect local adaptation, most studies to date have failed either to incorporate the effects of the abiotic environment, or to separate them from those of the biotic environment. Here, we tease apart biotic and abiotic components of local adaptation using the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens and its viral parasite bacteriophage Φ2. We coevolved replicate populations of bacteria and phages at three different temperatures, and determined their performance against coevolutionary partners from the same and different temperatures. Crucially, we measured performance

SUBMITTER: Gorter FA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4780547 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature