1. Does host socio-spatial behavior lead to a fine-scale spatial genetic structure in its associated parasites?
- Author
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Portanier E, Garel M, Devillard S, Duhayer J, Poirel MT, Henri H, Régis C, Maillard D, Redman E, Itty C, Michel P, and Bourgoin G
- Subjects
- Animals, Animals, Wild parasitology, Animals, Wild physiology, Environment, Female, France, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Haemonchus pathogenicity, Life Cycle Stages, Male, Microsatellite Repeats, Sheep physiology, Behavior, Animal, Haemonchus genetics, Host-Parasite Interactions, Sheep parasitology
- Abstract
Gastro-intestinal nematodes, especially Haemonchus contortus, are widespread pathogenic parasites of small ruminants. Studying their spatial genetic structure is as important as studying host genetic structure to fully understand host-parasite interactions and transmission patterns. For parasites having a simple life cycle (e.g., monoxenous parasites), gene flow and spatial genetic structure are expected to strongly rely on the socio-spatial behavior of their hosts. Based on five microsatellite loci, we tested this hypothesis for H. contortus sampled in a wild Mediterranean mouflon population (Ovis gmelini musimon × Ovis sp.) in which species- and environment-related characteristics have been found to generate socio-spatial units. We nevertheless found that their parasites had no spatial genetic structure, suggesting that mouflon behavior was not enough to limit parasite dispersal in this study area and/or that other ecological and biological factors were involved in this process, for example other hosts, the parasite life cycle, or the study area history., (© E. Portanier et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2019.)
- Published
- 2019
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