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Polymorphism in multilocus host parasite coevolutionary interactions.

Aurélien Tellier1, James K M Brown

  • 1Department of Disease and Stress Biology, John Innes Centre, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UH, United Kingdom. tellier@zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de

Genetics
|October 20, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Host-parasite interactions often involve multiple genes, leading to stable genetic diversity in both species. This study shows that complex gene interactions promote stable polymorphism in parasite populations, especially with high infection rates.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Population genetics
  • Ecology

Background:

  • Host-parasite interactions involve numerous genetic loci, including major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes in hosts and gene-for-gene (GFG) systems.
  • Polymorphism is frequently observed at these loci and at parasite loci encoding antigenic molecules.
  • Multilocus models predict that stable polymorphism arises from indirect frequency-dependent selection, where rare genotypes gain a selective advantage.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the conditions under which stable genetic polymorphism occurs in host-parasite systems.
  • To explore the role of multilocus interactions and frequency-dependent selection in maintaining diversity.
  • To predict the stability of gene-for-gene (GFG) polymorphism in plant-pathogen interactions.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Theoretical modeling of host-parasite coevolution using multilocus population genetics.
  • Analysis of frequency-dependent selection, including direct and indirect mechanisms.
  • Examination of epistatic interactions between resistance and virulence genes.

Main Results:

  • Stable polymorphism of all genotypes is achievable in parasite populations under realistic conditions (low resistance/virulence costs, polycyclic disease, high autoinfection).
  • Epistatic interactions between loci expand the parameter space for stable polymorphism in both hosts and parasites.
  • Specific cost structures (increasing marginal cost of virulence alleles in parasites, decreasing marginal cost of resistance alleles in hosts) favor stable polymorphism.

Conclusions:

  • Multilocus interactions and frequency-dependent selection robustly maintain genetic polymorphism in host-parasite systems.
  • Gene-for-gene (GFG) polymorphism is predicted to be stable and detectable when partial complementation occurs in parasite avirulence and host resistance genes.