Worldwide host associations of the tick genus Ixodes suggest relationships based on environmental sharing rather than on co-phylogenetic events.

ABSTRACT:

Background

This study aims to capture how ticks of the genus Ixodes gained their hosts using network constructs. We propose two alternative hypotheses, namely, an ecological background (ticks and hosts sharing environmentally available conditions) and a phylogenetic one, in which both partners co-evolved, adapting to existing environmental conditions after the association took place.

Methods

We used network constructs linking all the known pairs of associations between each species and stage of ticks with families and orders of hosts. Faith's phylogenetic diversity was used to evaluate the phylogenetic distance of the hosts of each species and changes occurring in the ontogenetic switch between consecutive stages of each species (or the extent of the changes in phylogenetic

SUBMITTER: Estrada-Pena A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9945728 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature