Asexual reproductive potential trumps virulence as a predictor of competitive ability in mixed infections.

ABSTRACT: Natural infections frequently involve several co-infecting pathogen strains. These mixed infections can affect the extent of the infection, the transmission success of the pathogen and the eventual epidemic outcome. To date, few studies have investigated how mixed infections affect transmission between hosts. Zymoseptoria tritici is a highly diverse wheat pathogen in which multiple strains often coexist in the same lesion. Here we demonstrate that the most competitive strains often exclude their competitors during serial passages of mixed infections. The outcome of the competition depended on both the host genotype and the genotypes of the competing pathogen strains. Differences in virulence among the strains were not associated with competitive advantages during transmission, while differ

SUBMITTER: Bernasconi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9790533 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature