Host–symbiont conflict over the mixing of symbiotic lineages
- 22 March 1996
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
- Vol. 263 (1368), 339-344
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1996.0052
Abstract
Host and symbiont often conflict over patterns of symbiont transmission. Symbionts favour dispersal out of the host to avoid competition with close relatives. Migration leads to competition among different symbiotic lineages, with potentially virulent side-effects on the host. The hosts are favoured to restrict symbiont migration and reduce the virulent tendencies of the symbionts. Reduced mixing of symbionts would, in many cases, lower symbiont virulence and increase the mean fitness of the host population. But a host modifier allele that reduced symbiont mixing increases only when directly associated with reduced virulence. The association between modifiers and reduced virulence depends on the particular details of symbiont biology. The importance of this direct association between modifier and virulence was first noted by Hoekstra (1987) when studying the evolution of uniparental inheritance of cytoplasmic elements. I apply Hoekstra’s insight to a wide range of host–symbiont life histories, expanding the scope beyond cytoplasmic inheritance and genomic conflict. My comparison of differing symbiont life histories leads to a careful analysis of the conditions under which hosts are favoured to control mixing of their symbionts.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cytoplasmic genetics under inbreeding and outbreedingProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1994
- Recognition and polymorphism in host—parasite geneticsPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1994
- Kin selection and virulence in the evolution of protocells and parasitesProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1994
- Population genetic aspects of deleterious cytoplasmic genomes and their effect on the evolution of sexual reproductionGenetics Research, 1992
- The evolution of sexesPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1987
- HIERARCHICAL SELECTION THEORY AND SEX RATIOS. II. ON APPLYING THE THEORY, AND A TEST WITH FIG WASPSEvolution, 1985
- Sex Ratio Adjustment in Fig WaspsScience, 1985
- WINGLESS AND FIGHTING MALES IN FIG WASPS AND OTHER INSECTSPublished by Elsevier BV ,1979
- Dispersal in stable habitatsNature, 1977
- Extraordinary Sex RatiosScience, 1967