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Increasing productivity accelerates host-parasite coevolution.

L d C Lopez-Pascua1, A Buckling

  • 1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. laura.lopezpascua@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Journal of Evolutionary Biology
|February 21, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Ecosystem productivity fuels host-parasite coevolutionary arms races. Higher productivity accelerates the coevolutionary rate between bacteria and their viruses (phages), impacting bacterial resistance and phage infectivity.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Ecology
  • Microbiology

Background:

  • Host-parasite coevolution shapes key ecological and evolutionary processes.
  • The rate of coevolution is influenced by ecosystem productivity, which represents energy flow.
  • Understanding this link is crucial for predicting evolutionary trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effect of ecosystem productivity on the rate of coevolution.
  • To examine the coevolutionary dynamics between bacteria and their parasitic viruses (phages) under varying productivity levels.

Main Methods:

  • Experimental evolution using bacterial and phage populations.
  • Manipulating ecosystem productivity to observe changes in coevolutionary rates.
  • Quantifying bacterial resistance and phage infectivity evolution.

Main Results:

  • The rate of coevolution between bacterial resistance and phage infectivity significantly increased with higher productivity.
  • Reduced competitiveness of resistant bacteria in low-productivity environments led to weaker selection for resistance.
  • Productivity variations were shown to generate spatial variation in selection for resistance.

Conclusions:

  • Ecosystem productivity is a critical factor modulating the pace of host-parasite coevolution.
  • Findings support the geographic mosaic theory by demonstrating how productivity creates diverse selection landscapes.
  • This research highlights the importance of resource availability in driving evolutionary arms races.