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Parasite Fitness Traits Under Environmental Variation: Disentangling the Roles of a Chytrid’s Immediate Host and External Environment

  • Host Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

Parasite environments are heterogeneous at different levels. The first level of variability is the host itself. The second level represents the external environment for the hosts, to which parasites may be exposed during part of their life cycle. Both levels are expected to affect parasite fitness traits. We disentangle the main and interaction effects of variation in the immediate host environment, here the diatom Asterionella formosa (variables host cell volume and host condition through herbicide pre-exposure) and variation in the external environment (variables host density and acute herbicide exposure) on three fitness traits (infection success, development time and reproductive output) of a chytrid parasite. Herbicide exposure only decreased infection success in a low host density environment. This result reinforces the hypothesis that chytrid zoospores use photosynthesis-dependent chemical cues to locate its host. At high host densities, chemotaxis becomes less relevant due to increasing chance contact rates between host and parasite, thereby following the mass-action principle in epidemiology. Theoretical support for this finding is provided by an agent-based simulation model. The immediate host environment (cell volume) substantially affected parasite reproductive output and also interacted with the external herbicide exposed environment. On the contrary, changes in the immediate host environment through herbicide pre-exposure did not increase infection success, though it had subtle effects on zoospore development time and reproductive output. This study shows that both immediate host and external environment as well as their interaction have significant effects on parasite fitness. Disentangling these effects improves our understanding of the processes underlying parasite spread and disease dynamics.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Christoph Tellenbach for statistical advice and Alena Gsell for helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was funded by the ETH Board (CCES7 GEDIHAP) with additional financial support from the Special Research Fund (BOF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant PBEZP3-140146).

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Author notes

  1. Silke Van den Wyngaert

    Present address: Laboratory of Aquatic Biology, Department of Biology, K.U. Leuven Kulak, E. Sabbelaan 53, 8500, Kortrijk, Belgium

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aquatic Ecology, Eawag, Ueberlandstrasse 133, P.O. Box 611, 8600, Duebendorf, Switzerland

    Silke Van den Wyngaert, Piet Spaak & Bas W. Ibelings

  2. Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Piet Spaak & Bas W. Ibelings

  3. Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Olivier Vanholsbeeck

  4. Institut F.-A. Forel, Université de Genève, 10 Route de Suisse, Versoix, Switzerland

    Bas W. Ibelings

  5. Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Department of Aquatic Ecology, Droevendaalsesteeg 10, 6708, PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Bas W. Ibelings

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  1. Silke Van den Wyngaert
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Correspondence to Silke Van den Wyngaert.

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Van den Wyngaert, S., Vanholsbeeck, O., Spaak, P. et al. Parasite Fitness Traits Under Environmental Variation: Disentangling the Roles of a Chytrid’s Immediate Host and External Environment. Microb Ecol 68, 645–656 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0434-1

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