Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026
07:00
Microbiota of Attine Ants' Gardens: Visualizing a Microbial Landscape by Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: October 4, 2024
Spatial variation in disease resistance: from molecules to metapopulations
Anna-Liisa Laine1, Jeremy J Burdon, Peter N Dodds
1CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
The Journal of Ecology
|January 19, 2011
Summary
Wild plants show diverse disease resistance across all scales, with higher resistance diversity leading to better population-level defense. Plants are more resistant to distant pathogens than local ones.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Plant Pathology
Background:
- Disease resistance variation is common in wild plant-pathogen interactions.
- Understanding resistance distribution across spatial scales is crucial for plant defense strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review literature on natural plant-pathogen associations.
- To determine how disease resistance diversity is distributed across hierarchical spatial scales.
- To assess the impact of pathogen origin and dispersal mode on plant resistance.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of current research on wild plant-pathogen associations.
- Analysis of resistance diversity at individual, population, metapopulation, and regional scales.
- Examination of experimental inoculation studies using allopatric and sympatric pathogen strains.
- Case studies of specific plant-pathogen systems (e.g., Linum marginale and Melampsora lini).
Main Results:
- Disease resistance diversity is present across all examined spatial scales.
- Higher resistance phenotype diversity correlates with increased population-level resistance.
- Plant populations exhibit greater resistance to allopatric pathogen strains (48%) than sympatric ones (32%).
- Airborne pathogen hosts show lower resistance levels compared to waterborne pathogen hosts.
Conclusions:
- Variation in disease resistance is ubiquitous in wild plant-pathogen associations.
- Pathogen-imposed selection is evident, though the debate on its drivers continues.
- Measuring resistance across multiple spatial scales and using sympatric strains are vital for coevolutionary studies.
Related Concept Videos
02:39Gene Flow
Gene flow is the transfer of genes among populations, resulting from either the dispersal of gametes or from the migration of individuals.
01:29Malaria
Malaria pathogenesis in humans reflects a delicate interplay between parasite biology and host response. Clinical illness reflects a host’s immune response to the parasite’s asexual replication cycle, which is often asymptomatic in individuals with partial immunity. From the parasite's perspective, transmission between mosquito and human with minimal host pathology is evolutionarily advantageous. Among the six Plasmodium species infecting humans, P. falciparum and P. vivax dominate in global...
01:09Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
In a population that is not at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of alleles changes over time. Therefore, any deviations from the five conditions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can alter the genetic variation of a given population. Conditions that change the genetic variability of a population include mutations, natural selection, non-random mating, gene flow, and genetic drift (small population size).Mechanisms of Genetic VariationThe original sources of genetic variation are mutations,...
00:30What are Populations and Communities?
Populations are groups of individuals of the same species that inhabit a shared environment. Communities include multiple co-existing, interacting populations of different species. Metapopulations span multiple populations of the same species that occupy different areas. Metapopulations interact through immigration and emigration, providing genetic diversity that lends resilience to harsh environments. Population size and density can be estimated using quadrat and mark and recapture...
01:25What is Population Genetics?
A population is composed of members of the same species that simultaneously live and interact in the same area. When individuals in a population breed, they pass down their genes to their offspring. Many of these genes are polymorphic, meaning that they occur in multiple variants. Such variations of a gene are referred to as alleles. The collective set of all the alleles within a population is known as the gene pool.While some alleles of a given gene might be observed commonly, other variants...
02:04Conservation of Small Populations
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less likely to...