Use it or lose it: reproductive implications of ecological specialization in a haematophagous ectoparasite

Using experimentally induced disruptive selection, we tested two hypotheses regarding the evolution of specialization in parasites. The ‘trade‐off’ hypothesis suggests that adaptation to a specific host may come at the expense of a reduced performance when exploiting another host. The alternative ‘r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2012-06, Vol.25 (6), p.1140-1148
Main Authors: ARBIV, A., KHOKHLOVA, I. S., OVADIA, O., NOVOPLANSKY, A., KRASNOV, B. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Biological
Animal reproduction
Animals
ecological specialization
Ecology
Ecosystem
Epigenesis, Genetic
Evolution, Molecular
Evolutionary biology
Female
Flea Infestations - parasitology
Gerbillinae - parasitology
host shift
Host Specificity
Host-Parasite Interactions
Male
Parasites
Population genetics
Pupa - physiology
relaxed selection
Reproduction
Species Specificity
trade‐off
Xenopsylla - genetics
Xenopsylla - pathogenicity
Xenopsylla - physiology
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Summary:Using experimentally induced disruptive selection, we tested two hypotheses regarding the evolution of specialization in parasites. The ‘trade‐off’ hypothesis suggests that adaptation to a specific host may come at the expense of a reduced performance when exploiting another host. The alternative ‘relaxed selection’ hypothesis suggests that the ability to exploit a given host would deteriorate when becoming obsolete. Three replicate populations of a flea Xenopsylla ramesis were maintained on each of two rodent hosts, Meriones crassus and Dipodillus dasyurus, for nine generations. Fleas maintained on a specific host species for a few generations substantially decreased their reproductive performance when transferred to an alternative host species, whereas they generally did not increase their performance on their maintenance host. The results support the ‘relaxed selection’ hypothesis of the evolution of ecological specialization in haematophagous ectoparasites, while suggesting that trade‐offs are unlikely drivers of specialization. Further work is needed to study the extent by which the observed specializations are based on epigenetic or genetic modifications.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02499.x