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Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach
Finding out whether Plasmodium spp. are coevolving with their vertebrate hosts is of both theoretical and applied interest and can influence our understanding of the effects and dynamics of malaria infection. In this study, we tested for local adaptation as a signature of coevolution between malaria...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4640884/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26555892 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141391 |
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author | Jenkins, Tania Delhaye, Jessica Christe, Philippe |
author_facet | Jenkins, Tania Delhaye, Jessica Christe, Philippe |
author_sort | Jenkins, Tania |
collection | PubMed |
description | Finding out whether Plasmodium spp. are coevolving with their vertebrate hosts is of both theoretical and applied interest and can influence our understanding of the effects and dynamics of malaria infection. In this study, we tested for local adaptation as a signature of coevolution between malaria blood parasites, Plasmodium spp. and its host, the great tit, Parus major. We conducted a reciprocal transplant experiment of birds in the field, where we exposed birds from two populations to Plasmodium parasites. This experimental set-up also provided a unique opportunity to study the natural history of malaria infection in the wild and to assess the effects of primary malaria infection on juvenile birds. We present three main findings: i) there was no support for local adaptation; ii) there was a male-biased infection rate; iii) infection occurred towards the end of the summer and differed between sites. There were also site-specific effects of malaria infection on the hosts. Taken together, we present one of the few experimental studies of parasite-host local adaptation in a natural malaria system, and our results shed light on the effects of avian malaria infection in the wild. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4640884 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46408842015-11-13 Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach Jenkins, Tania Delhaye, Jessica Christe, Philippe PLoS One Research Article Finding out whether Plasmodium spp. are coevolving with their vertebrate hosts is of both theoretical and applied interest and can influence our understanding of the effects and dynamics of malaria infection. In this study, we tested for local adaptation as a signature of coevolution between malaria blood parasites, Plasmodium spp. and its host, the great tit, Parus major. We conducted a reciprocal transplant experiment of birds in the field, where we exposed birds from two populations to Plasmodium parasites. This experimental set-up also provided a unique opportunity to study the natural history of malaria infection in the wild and to assess the effects of primary malaria infection on juvenile birds. We present three main findings: i) there was no support for local adaptation; ii) there was a male-biased infection rate; iii) infection occurred towards the end of the summer and differed between sites. There were also site-specific effects of malaria infection on the hosts. Taken together, we present one of the few experimental studies of parasite-host local adaptation in a natural malaria system, and our results shed light on the effects of avian malaria infection in the wild. Public Library of Science 2015-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4640884/ /pubmed/26555892 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141391 Text en © 2015 Jenkins et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Jenkins, Tania Delhaye, Jessica Christe, Philippe Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach |
title | Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach |
title_full | Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach |
title_fullStr | Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach |
title_full_unstemmed | Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach |
title_short | Testing Local Adaptation in a Natural Great Tit-Malaria System: An Experimental Approach |
title_sort | testing local adaptation in a natural great tit-malaria system: an experimental approach |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4640884/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26555892 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141391 |
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