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Gender dimorphism in the virulence of a dioecious mistletoe

[Display omitted] •Males are often the ‘sicker sex’ because male hosts tend to be more susceptible to parasitism than female hosts.•Comparatively little is known about how virulence might differ between male and female parasites.•I show that females of a mistletoe from Patagonia grow larger than mal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for parasitology 2021-11, Vol.51 (12), p.985-987
Main Author: Burns, K.C.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:[Display omitted] •Males are often the ‘sicker sex’ because male hosts tend to be more susceptible to parasitism than female hosts.•Comparatively little is known about how virulence might differ between male and female parasites.•I show that females of a mistletoe from Patagonia grow larger than males and correspondingly do more harm to their hosts.•I conclude that gender can affect both host susceptibility to parasitism and the virulence of parasites. Parasite virulence often differs between male and female hosts. However, less is known about how virulence might differ between male and female parasites. Here, I show that female plants of the dioecious mistletoe Misodendrum quadrifolium (Misodendraceae) grow larger than male plants. Correspondingly, females reduce the photosynthetic capacity of infected host branches more than males. Results indicate that in addition to playing an important role in determining host susceptibility to parasitism, gender can also play an important role in determining the virulence of dioecious parasites.
ISSN:0020-7519
1879-0135
DOI:10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.05.007