Red Queen revisited
- In accordance with the Red Queen hypothesis, the lower genotypic diversity in clonally reproducing species should make them easier targets for pathogen infection, especially when closely related sexually reproducing species occur in close proximity. We analyzed two populations of clonal \(\textit {P. formosa}\) and their sexual parental species \(\textit {P. mexicana}\) by correlating individual parasite infection with overall and immune genotype. Our study revealed lower levels of overall genotypic diversity and marginally fewer MHC class I alleles in \(\textit {P. formosa}\) individuals compared to sexually reproducing \(\textit {P. mexicana}\). Parasite load, however, differed only between field sites but not between species. We hypothesize that this might be due to slightly higher genotypic diversity in \(\textit {P. formosa}\) at the innate immune system (toll like receptor 8) which is likely due to the species’ hybrid origin. In consequence, it appears that clonal individuals do not necessarily suffer a disadvantage compared to sexual individuals when fighting parasite infection.
| Author: | Fabian GösserORCiDGND, Manfred SchartlORCiDGND, Francisco J. Garcia-De LeónGND, Ralph TollrianORCiDGND, Kathrin P. LampertORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-72095 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219000 |
| Parent Title (English): | PLoS one |
| Subtitle (English): | Immune gene diversity and parasite load in the asexual \(\textit {Poecilia formosa}\) versus its sexual host species \(\textit {P. mexicana}\) |
| Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
| Place of publication: | San Francisco |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2020/06/07 |
| Date of first Publication: | 2019/07/03 |
| Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
| Tag: | Open Access Fonds MHC class I genes; Major histocompatibility complex; Parasitic diseases; Pathogens; Polymerase chain reaction; Toll-like receptors; Triploidy; Variant genotypes |
| Volume: | 14 |
| Issue: | 7, Artikel e0219000 |
| First Page: | e0219000-1 |
| Last Page: | e0219000-16 |
| Note: | Article Processing Charge funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. |
| Institutes/Facilities: | Lehrstuhl für Evolutionsökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Biowissenschaften, Biologie, Biochemie |
| open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
| Licence (English): |  Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |
