Asymmetry in reproduction strategies drives evolution of resistance in biological control systems.

ABSTRACT: The success of biological control may depend on the control agent co-evolving with its target pest species, precluding the emergence of resistance that often undermines chemical control. However, recent evidence of a decline in attack rates of a sexual pest weevil by its asexual parasitoid suggests that evolutionary arms races may not prevent the emergence of resistance if the host and parasitoid do not have reproductive strategies that generate equal amounts of genetic variation. To understand how these asymmetries in reproductive strategies may drive the emergence of resistance, we combined life history data from two pest weevils and their parasitoids (one sexual and one asexual) in the New Zealand pastoral ecosystem, with a population dynamic model that allows the coevolution of hosts a

SUBMITTER: Casanovas P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6300327 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature