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Indirect ecological effects interact with community genetic effects in a host-parasite system and dramatically reduce parasite burden.

ABSTRACT: Community genetic (CG) effects and ecological factors create a complex set of interactions that are key drivers of evolutionary dynamics in ecological systems. To date, most studies investigating trait variation have focused on either effects of intraspecific genetic variation or on genotype by environment (GxE) interactions in isolation. Poorly investigated but very important are the interactions between CGs and indirect ecological effects (IEEs) that are caused by plant-soil interactions. Here, we tested how CGs in a cabbage host and its aphid parasite depended on the ecological conditions under which the host was grown. We established microcosms of different cabbage cultivars and aphid genotypes on soils inoculated with samples of other soils previously trained with onion. We hypothesized that such IEEs will have significantly different outcomes for ecosystems than predicted from simpler CG or GxE studies. Our analysis demonstrated a large IEE that differed by context and aphid genotype causing reduced parasite population sizes by up to 90%. The IEE is induced by insect-repellent properties and the microbiome of the onion. Our results highlight the importance of interacting IEEs and CGs for ecosystems dynamics showing that IEEs offer sustainable solutions by dramatically reducing parasite burden on cash crops.

SUBMITTER: Khudr MS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6158531 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Indirect ecological effects interact with community genetic effects in a host-parasite system and dramatically reduce parasite burden.

Khudr Mouhammad Shadi MS Purkiss Samuel Alexander SA Hager Reinmar R

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20180905 1886

Community genetic (CG) effects and ecological factors create a complex set of interactions that are key drivers of evolutionary dynamics in ecological systems. To date, most studies investigating trait variation have focused on either effects of intraspecific genetic variation or on genotype by environment (GxE) interactions in isolation. Poorly investigated but very important are the interactions between CGs and indirect ecological effects (IEEs) that are caused by plant-soil interactions. Here ...[more]

PMID: 30185645

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Project description:BackgroundParasites can profoundly impact their hosts and are responsible for a plethora of debilitating diseases. To identify global changes in host gene expression related to parasite infection, we sequenced, assembled, and annotated the liver transcriptomes of Balb/cj mice infected with the trematode parasite Schistosoma mansoni and compared the results to uninfected mice. We used two different methodologies (i.e. de novo and reference guided) to evaluate the influence of parasite sequences on host transcriptome assembly.ResultsOur results demonstrate that the choice of assembly methodology significantly impacted the proportion of parasitic reads detected from the host library, yet the presence of non-target (xenobiotic) sequences did not create significant structural errors in the assembly. After removing parasite sequences from the mouse transcriptomes, we analyzed host gene expression under different parasite infection levels and observed significant differences in the associated immunologic and metabolic responses based on infection level. In particular, genes associated with T-helper type 1 (Th-1) and T-helper type 2 (Th-2) were up-regulated in infected mice whereas genes related to amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism were down-regulated in infected mice. These changes in gene expression scale with infection status and likely impact the evolutionary fitness of hosts.ConclusionsOverall, our data indicate that a) infected mice reduce the expression of key metabolic genes in direct proportion to their infection level; b) infected mice similarly increase the expression of key immune genes in response to infection; c) patterns of gene expression correspond to the pathological symptoms of schistosomiasis; and d) identifying and filtering out non-target sequences (xenobiotics) improves differential expression prediction. Our findings identify parasite targets for RNAi or other therapies and provide a better understanding of the pathology and host immune repertoire involved in response to S. mansoni infections.

Dataset Information

Indirect ecological effects interact with community genetic effects in a host-parasite system and dramatically reduce parasite burden.

Publications

Indirect ecological effects interact with community genetic effects in a host-parasite system and dramatically reduce parasite burden.

Similar Datasets

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