Evolution of intermediate latency strategies in seasonal parasites
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Date
2024-03
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Traditional mechanistic trade-offs between transmission and parasite latency period length are foundational for nearly all theories on the evolution of parasite life-history strategies. Prior theoretical studies demonstrate that seasonal host activity can generate a trade-off for obligate-host killer parasites that selects for intermediate latency periods in the absence of a mechanistic trade-off between transmission and latency period lengths. Extensions of these studies predict that host seasonal patterns can lead to evolutionary bistability for obligate-host killer parasites in which two evolutionarily stable strategies, a shorter and longer latency period, are possible. Here we demonstrate that these conclusions from previously published studies hold for non-obligate host killer parasites. That is, seasonal host activity can select for intermediate parasite latency periods for non-obligate killer parasites in the absence of a trade-off between transmission and latency period length and can maintain multiple evolutionarily stable parasite life-history strategies. These results reinforce the hypothesis that host seasonal activity can act as a major selective force on parasite life-history evolution by extending the narrower prior theory to encompass a greater range of disease systems.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
37 (3)
Pages / Article No.
314 - 324
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Event
Edition / version
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Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
evolution; seasonality; phenology; parasite
Organisational unit
02720 - Institut für Integrative Biologie / Institute of Integrative Biology