Native perennial and non-native annual grasses shape pathogen community composition and disease severity in a California grassland.

ABSTRACT: The densities of highly competent plant hosts (i.e. those that are susceptible to and successfully transmit a pathogen) may shape pathogen community composition and disease severity, altering disease risk and impacts. Life history and evolutionary history can influence host competence; longer lived species tend to be better defended than shorter lived species and pathogens adapt to infect species with which they have longer evolutionary histories. It is unclear, however, how the densities of species that differ in competence due to life and evolutionary histories affect plant pathogen community composition and disease severity.We examined foliar fungal pathogens of two host groups in a California grassland: native perennial and non-native annual grasses. We first characterized pathogen com

SUBMITTER: Kendig AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8215988 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature