From generalist to specialists: Variation in the host range and performance of anther-smut pathogens on Dianthus.

ABSTRACT: Determining the processes that drive the evolution of pathogen host range can inform our understanding of disease dynamics and the potential for host shifts. In natural populations, patterns of host range could be driven by genetically based differences in pathogen infectivity or ecological differences in host availability. In northwestern Italy, four reproductively isolated lineages of the fungal plant-pathogen Microbotryum have been shown to co-occur on several species in the genus Dianthus. We carried out cross-inoculation experiments to determine whether patterns of realized host range in these four lineages were driven by differences in infectivity and to test whether there was evidence of a trade-off between host range and within-host reproduction. We found strong concordance between

SUBMITTER: Bruns EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8487925 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature