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Phenotypic plasticity more essential to maintaining variation in host-attachment behaviour than evolutionary trade-offs in a facultatively parasitic mite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2019

Emily S. Durkin Open the ORCID record for Emily S. Durkin [Opens in a new window]  and
Lien T. Luong
Emily S. Durkin*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW405, Biological Sciences Bldg., Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9
Lien T. Luong
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW405, Biological Sciences Bldg., Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9
*
Author for correspondence: Emily S. Durkin, E-mail: edurkin@ufl.edu
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Abstract

A prevailing hypothesis for the evolution of parasitism posits that the fitness benefits gained from parasitic activity results in selection for and fixation of parasitic strategies. Despite the potential fitness advantage of parasitism, facultative parasites continue to exhibit genetic variation in parasitic behaviour in nature. We hypothesized that evolutionary trade-offs associated with parasitic host-attachment behaviour maintain natural variation observed in attachment behaviour. In this study, we used replicate lines of a facultatively parasitic mite, previously selected for increased host-attachment behaviour to test whether increased attachment trades off with mite fecundity and longevity, as well as the phenotypic plasticity of attachment. We also tested for potential correlated changes in mite morphology. To test for context-dependent trade-offs, mite fecundity and longevity were assayed in the presence or absence of a host. Our results show that selected and control mites exhibited similar fecundities, longevities, attachment plasticities and morphologies, which did not provide evidence for life history trade-offs associated with increased attachment. Surprisingly, phenotypic plasticity in attachment was maintained despite directional selection on the trait, which suggests that phenotypic plasticity likely plays an important role in maintaining attachment variation in natural populations of this facultative parasite.

Keywords

Drosophila hydeiectoparasitic miteinfection variationMacrocheles muscaedomesticaenegative genetic correlationparasite evolutionparasite life-historyphenotypic plasticity
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 146 , Issue 10 , September 2019 , pp. 1289 - 1295
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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