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Parasitism and host dispersal plasticity in an aquatic model system

View ORCID ProfileGiacomo Zilio, View ORCID ProfileLouise S. Nørgaard, Giovanni Petrucci, Nathalie Zeballos, Claire Gougat-Barbera, View ORCID ProfileEmanuel A. Fronhofer, View ORCID ProfileOliver Kaltz
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.30.228742
Giacomo Zilio
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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  • ORCID record for Giacomo Zilio
  • For correspondence: gcm.zilio@gmail.com oliver.kaltz@umontpellier.fr
Louise S. Nørgaard
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
2School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Australia
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Giovanni Petrucci
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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Nathalie Zeballos
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
3CEFE, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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Claire Gougat-Barbera
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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Emanuel A. Fronhofer
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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Oliver Kaltz
1ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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  • ORCID record for Oliver Kaltz
  • For correspondence: gcm.zilio@gmail.com oliver.kaltz@umontpellier.fr
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Abstract

Dispersal is a central determinant of spatial dynamics in communities and ecosystems, and various ecological factors can shape the evolution of constitutive and plastic dispersal behaviours. One important driver of dispersal plasticity is the biotic environment. Parasites, for example, influence the internal condition of infected hosts and define external patch quality. Thus state-dependent dispersal may be determined by infection status and context-dependent dispersal by the abundance of infected hosts in the population. A prerequisite for such dispersal plasticity to evolve is a genetic basis on which natural selection can act. Using interconnected microcosms, we investigated dispersal in experimental populations of the freshwater protist Paramecium caudatum in response to the bacterial parasite Holospora undulata. For a collection of 20 natural host strains, we found substantial variation in constitutive dispersal, and to a lesser degree in dispersal plasticity. First, infection tended to increase or decrease dispersal relative to uninfected controls, depending on strain identity, potentially indicative of state-dependent dispersal plasticity. Infection additionally decreased host swimming speed compared to the uninfected counterparts. Second, for certain strains, there was a weak negative association between dispersal and infection prevalence, such that uninfected hosts tended to disperse less when infection was more frequent in the population, indicating context-dependent dispersal plasticity. Future experiments may test whether the observed differences in dispersal plasticity are sufficiently strong to react to natural selection. The evolution of dispersal plasticity as a strategy to mitigate parasite effects spatially may have important implications for epidemiological dynamics.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Conflict of Interest statement The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

  • gcm.zilio{at}gmail.com, lnorga10{at}hotmail.com, giovannipetrucci82{at}gmail.com, nathalie.zeballos{at}cefe.cnrs.fr, claire.gougat-barbera{at}umontpellier.fr, emanuel.fronhofer{at}umontpellier.fr, oliver.kaltz{at}umontpellier.fr

  • New statistical analysis using a Bayesian approach.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted March 07, 2021.
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Parasitism and host dispersal plasticity in an aquatic model system
Giacomo Zilio, Louise S. Nørgaard, Giovanni Petrucci, Nathalie Zeballos, Claire Gougat-Barbera, Emanuel A. Fronhofer, Oliver Kaltz
bioRxiv 2020.07.30.228742; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.30.228742
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Parasitism and host dispersal plasticity in an aquatic model system
Giacomo Zilio, Louise S. Nørgaard, Giovanni Petrucci, Nathalie Zeballos, Claire Gougat-Barbera, Emanuel A. Fronhofer, Oliver Kaltz
bioRxiv 2020.07.30.228742; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.30.228742

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