Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 280, Issue 1760, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2947
Keywords
avian malaria; Plasmodium; host-encounter rate; host compatibility; mosquito-feeding patterns; host range
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [EF-0429124]
- National Science Foundation grant [DEB-054239]
- Whitney Harris World Ecology Center
- St Louis Audubon Society
- Curators of the University of Missouri
- University of Missouri-St Louis Dissertation Fellowship
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [0840403] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Blood-feeding arthropod vectors are responsible for transmitting many parasites between vertebrate hosts. While arthropod vectors often feed on limited subsets of potential host species, little is known about the extent to which this influences the distribution of vector-borne parasites in some systems. Here, we test the hypothesis that different vector species structure parasite-host relationships by restricting access of certain parasites to a subset of available hosts. Specifically, we investigate how the feeding patterns of Culex mosquito vectors relate to distributions of avian malaria parasites among hosts in suburban Chicago, IL, USA. We show that Plasmodium lineages, defined by cytochrome b haplotypes, are heterogeneously distributed across avian hosts. However, the feeding patterns of the dominant vectors (Culex restuans and Culex pipiens) are similar across these hosts, and do not explain the distributions of Plasmodium parasites. Phylogenetic similarity of avian hosts predicts similarity in their Plasmodium parasites. This effect was driven primarily by the general association of Plasmodium parasites with particular host superfamilies. Our results suggest that a mosquito-imposed encounter rate does not limit the distribution of avian Plasmodium parasites across hosts. This implies that compatibility between parasites and their avian hosts structure Plasmodium host range.
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