Infection in patchy populations: Contrasting pathogen invasion success and dispersal at varying times since host colonization.

ABSTRACT: Repeated extinction and recolonization events generate a landscape of host populations that vary in their time since colonization. Within this dynamic landscape, pathogens that excel at invading recently colonized host populations are not necessarily those that perform best in host populations at or near their carrying capacity, potentially giving rise to divergent selection for pathogen traits that mediate the invasion process. Rarely, however, has this contention been empirically tested. Using Daphnia magna, we explored how differences in the colonization history of a host population influence the invasion success of different genotypes of the pathogen Pasteuria ramosa. By partitioning the pathogen invasion process into a series of individual steps, we show that each pathogen optimizes i

SUBMITTER: Norgaard LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6791296 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature