Local adaptation at higher trophic levels: contrasting hyperparasite-pathogen infection dynamics in the field and laboratory.

ABSTRACT: Predicting and controlling infectious disease epidemics is a major challenge facing the management of agriculture, human and wildlife health. Co-evolutionarily derived patterns of local adaptation among pathogen populations have the potential to generate variation in disease epidemiology; however, studies of local adaptation in disease systems have mostly focused on interactions between competing pathogens or pathogens and their hosts. In nature, parasites and pathogens are also subject to attack by hyperparasitic natural enemies that can severely impact upon their infection dynamics. However, few studies have investigated whether this interaction varies across combinations of pathogen-hyperparasite strains, and whether this influences hyperparasite incidence in natural pathogen population

SUBMITTER: Parratt SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5412677 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature