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Antagonistic coevolution between hosts and sexually transmitted infections

View ORCID ProfileBen Ashby
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/590232
Ben Ashby
*Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
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  • For correspondence: benashbyevo@gmail.com
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Abstract

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are predicted to play an important role in the evolution of host mating strategies, and vice versa, yet our understanding of host-STI coevolution is limited. Here, I present a model of acute STI infection in populations with ephemeral mating dynamics, where hosts evolve their preference for healthy mates and STIs evolve mortality or sterility virulence. Mate choice readily evolves even though ephemeral mating and acute infections reduce the advantages of mate choice compared to previous theory based on serial monogamy and chronic infections. Selection for mate choice constrains both mortality and sterility virulence, leading to optimal strategies in each population, host polymorphism, or fluctuating selection. I show how the mode of virulence, costs associated with mate choice, recovery, and host lifespan impact on host-STI coevolution, with fluctuating selection most likely when hosts have intermediate lifespans, STIs cause sterility and longer infections, and costs of mate choice are not too high. The results reveal new insights into the evolution of mate choice and how coevolution unfolds for different host and STI life-history traits, providing increased support for parasite-mediated sexual selection as a potential driver of host mate choice, and mate choice as a constraint on STI virulence.

Footnotes

  • Rewritten and expanded throughout (introduction, methods, results, figures and discussion). Supporting information updated.

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 June 22, 2019.
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Antagonistic coevolution between hosts and sexually transmitted infections
Ben Ashby
bioRxiv 590232; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/590232
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Antagonistic coevolution between hosts and sexually transmitted infections
Ben Ashby
bioRxiv 590232; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/590232

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