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Who benefits from reduced reproduction in parasitized hosts? An experimental test using the Pasteuria ramosa-Daphnia magna system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2011

JON H. MAGEROY ,
ELDFRID J. GREPPERUD  and
KNUT HELGE JENSEN
JON H. MAGEROY*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Bergen, PO Box 7803, 5020 Bergen, Norway
ELDFRID J. GREPPERUD
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Bergen, PO Box 7803, 5020 Bergen, Norway
KNUT HELGE JENSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Bergen, PO Box 7803, 5020 Bergen, Norway
*
*Corresponding author: Tel: +4741041653. Fax: +4755584450. E-mail: jon.mageroy@bio.uib.no
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Summary

We investigated whether parasites or hosts benefit from reduced reproduction in infected hosts. When parasites castrate their hosts, the regain of host reproduction is necessary for castration to be a host adaptation. When infecting Daphnia magna with Pasteuria ramosa, in a lake water based medium, 49 2% of the castrated females regained reproduction. We investigated the relationship between castration level, and parasite and host fitness proxies to determine the adaptive value of host castration. Hosts which regained reproduction contained less spores and had a higher lifetime reproduction than permanently castrated hosts. We also found a negative correlation between parasite and host lifetime reproduction. For hosts which regained reproduction we found no optimal level of castration associated with lifetime reproduction. These results support the view that host castration only is adaptive to the parasite in this system. In addition, we suggest that permanent castration might not be the norm under natural conditions in this system. Finally, we argue that a reduction in host reproduction is more likely to evolve as a property favouring parasites rather than hosts. To our knowledge this is the only experimental study to investigate the adaptive value of reduced host reproduction when castrated hosts can regain reproduction.

Keywords

host-parasite interactioncastrationfitness correlationadaptationenvironmentPasteuriaDaphnia
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 138 , Issue 14 , December 2011 , pp. 1910 - 1915
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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