Berenos, C., Schmid-Hempel, P. and Wegner, Mathias (2011) Experimental coevolution leads to a decrease in parasite-induced host mortality. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 24 (8). pp. 1777-1782. DOI 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02306.x.

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Abstract

Host–parasite coevolution can lead to a variety of outcomes, but whereas experimental studies on clonal populations have taken prominence over the last years, experimental studies on obligately out-crossing organisms are virtually absent so far. Therefore, we set up a coevolution experiment using four genetically distinct lines of Tribolium castaneum and its natural obligately killing microsporidian parasite, Nosema whitei. After 13 generations of experimental coevolution, we employed a time-shift experiment infecting hosts from the current generation with parasites from nine different time points in coevolutionary history. Although initially parasite-induced mortality showed synchronized fluctuations across lines, a general decrease over time was observed, potentially reflecting evolution towards optimal levels of virulence or a failure to adapt to coevolving sexual hosts.

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