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Avoidance of host resistance in the oviposition-site preferences of rose bitterling

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Abstract

A contemporary outcome of dynamic host–parasite coevolution can be driven by the adaptation of a parasite to exploit its hosts at the population and species levels (parasite specialisation) or by local host adaptations leading to greater host resistance to sympatric parasite populations (host resistance). We tested the predominance of these two scenarios using cross-infection experiments with two geographically distant populations of the rose bitterling, Rhodeus ocellatus, a fish brood parasite of freshwater mussels, and four populations of their mussel hosts (two Anodonta woodiana and two Unio douglasiae populations) with varying degrees of geographic sympatry and local coexistence. Our data support predictions for host resistance at the species level but no effect of local coexistence between specific populations. Rhodeus ocellatus showed a preference for allopatric host populations, irrespective of host species. Host mussel response, in terms of ejection of R. ocellatus eggs, was stronger in the more widespread and abundant host species (A. woodiana) and this response tended to be higher in sympatric populations. These outcomes provide support for the importance of host resistance in bitterling oviposition-site decisions, demonstrating that host choice by R. ocellatus is adaptive by minimizing egg ejections. These findings imply that R. ocellatus, and potentially other bitterling species, may benefit from exploiting novel hosts, which may not possess appropriate adaptive responses to parasitism.

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Acknowledgements

Funding came from the Czech Science Foundation (13-05872S). MR and CS designed the study. RR collected data with the help of HL, CM, KD, DY, and QT. CS, RR and MR analysed the data and RR, CS and MR drafted the ms, with contributions from HL and KD. We thank John Endler, Matt Hall and four anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Primary data associated with the paper are deposited at Figshare Repository (10.6084/m9.figshare.4797886).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic

    Romain Rouchet, Carl Smith, Caroline Methling & Martin Reichard

  2. School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Carl Smith

  3. Bell-Pettigrew Museum of Natural History, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Carl Smith

  4. The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Huanzhang Liu, Dan Yu & Qionying Tang

  5. Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Faculty of Agrobiology Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Karel Douda

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  1. Romain Rouchet
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Correspondence to Martin Reichard.

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Rouchet, R., Smith, C., Liu, H. et al. Avoidance of host resistance in the oviposition-site preferences of rose bitterling. Evol Ecol 31, 769–783 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-017-9907-2

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