Pace of life, predators and parasites: predator-induced life-history evolution in Trinidadian guppies predicts decrease in parasite tolerance

Stephenson, Jessica F.; Oosterhout, Cock van; Cable, Joanne

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0806

Cited by 25 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…If the cues of infection are indeed host‐derived and independent of infection load, as our data suggest, the infection‐avoidance behaviour they mediate could be widespread in natural populations despite the relatively low infection loads observed in field surveys (Stephenson, van Oosterhout, Mohammed, et al, ). Further, while the cues in our experiment were presented separately, in natural settings, guppies are likely often in receipt of both.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…We used the guppy Poecilia reticulata–Gyrodactylus turnbulli host–parasite system to experimentally test for risk‐sensitive avoidance of infectious conspecifics. G. turnbulli is an ectoparasitic monogenean that reproduces on the host's skin with a generation time of 24 hr and transmits directly through close contact between socially interacting hosts (Stephenson, van Oosterhout, Mohammed, & Cable, ). Gyrodactylus spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gyrodactylus spp. parasites are the most prevalent multicellular parasites in wild guppy populations (Stephenson, van Oosterhout, Mohammed, et al ) and are associated with reduced guppy body condition (Stephenson, van Oosterhout, & Cable, ), attractiveness (Kennedy, Endler, Poynton, & McMinn, ) and survival (Stephenson, Kinsella, Cable, & van Oosterhout, ; van Oosterhout et al., ). The ability to recognize and avoid infected individuals is therefore likely to be under strong selection and there is some evidence that it occurs; the presence of infected conspecifics reduces shoal cohesion in semi‐natural conditions (Croft et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Transmission risk predicts avoidance of infected conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies

Stephenson

Perkins

Cable

2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Associating with conspecifics afflicted with infectious diseases increases the risk of becoming infected, but engaging in avoidance behaviour incurs the cost of lost social benefits. Across systems, infected individuals vary in the transmission risk they pose, so natural selection should favour risk-sensitive avoidance behaviour that optimally balances the costs and benefits of sociality. Here, we use the guppy Poecilia reticulata-Gyrodactylus turnbulli host-parasite system to test the prediction that individuals avoid infected conspecifics in proportion to the transmission risk they pose. In dichotomous choice tests, uninfected fish avoided both the chemical and visual cues, presented separately, of infected conspecifics only in the later stages of infection. A transmission experiment indicated that this avoidance behaviour accurately tracked transmission risk (quantified as both the speed at which transmission occurs and the number of parasites transmitting) through the course of infection. Together, these findings reveal that uninfected hosts can use redundant cues across sensory systems to inform dynamic risk-sensitive avoidance behaviour. This correlation between the transmission risk posed by infected individuals and the avoidance response they elicit has implications for the evolutionary ecology of infectious disease, and its explicit inclusion may improve the ability of epidemic models to predict disease spread.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Transmission risk predicts avoidance of infected conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies

Stephenson

Perkins

Cable

2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, the effects of parasites might be more important in the presence of dangerous predators (synergistic: Kortet et al ., ). Antagonistic effects are also possible (Raffel et al ., ; Stephenson et al ., ); for instance, grouping behaviour (shoaling) could be beneficial in the presence of predators but detrimental in the presence of contagious parasites (Coté & Poulin ). If we could find a set of parasite‐free high‐predation guppy populations, we would be able to test these ideas in a fully crossed predation‐by‐parasite design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parallel and nonparallel behavioural evolution in response to parasitism and predation in Trinidadian guppies

Jacquin

Reader

Boniface

et al. 2016

J of Evolutionary Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Natural enemies such as predators and parasites are known to shape intraspecific variability of behaviour and personality in natural populations, yet several key questions remain: (i) What is the relative importance of predation vs. parasitism in shaping intraspecific variation of behaviour across generations? (ii) What are the contributions of genetic and plastic effects to this behavioural divergence? (iii) And to what extent are responses to predation and parasitism repeatable across independent evolutionary lineages? We addressed these questions using Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) (i) varying in their exposure to dangerous fish predators and Gyrodactylus ectoparasites for (ii) both wild-caught F0 and laboratory-reared F2 individuals and coming from (iii) multiple independent evolutionary lineages (i.e. independent drainages). Several key findings emerged. First, a population's history of predation and parasitism influenced behavioural profiles, but to different extent depending on the behaviour considered (activity, shoaling or boldness). Second, we had evidence for some genetic effects of predation regime on behaviour, with differences in activity of F2 laboratory-reared individuals, but not for parasitism, which had only plastic effects on the boldness of wild-caught F0 individuals. Third, the two lineages showed a mixture of parallel and nonparallel responses to predation/parasitism, with parallel responses being stronger for predation than for parasitism and for activity and boldness than for shoaling. These findings suggest that different sets of behaviours provide different pay-offs in alternative predation/parasitism environments and that parasitism has more transient effects in shaping intraspecific variation of behaviour than does predation.

show abstract

“…Recent research indicates a role for predators in driving patterns in the parasitism of natural guppy populations (Stephenson et al. ,b), but the mechanisms involved remain unclear. The ectoparasitic monogeneans, Gyrodactylus spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A further cost for the sicker sex? Evidence for male‐biased parasite‐induced vulnerability to predation

Stephenson

Kinsella

Cable

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Males are typically the sicker sex. Data from multiple taxa indicate that they are more likely to be infected with parasites, and are less “tolerant,” or less able to mitigate the fitness costs of a given infection, than females. One cost of infection for many animals is an increased probability of being captured by a predator. A clear, hitherto untested, prediction is therefore that this parasite‐induced vulnerability to predation is more pronounced among males than females. We tested this prediction in the sexually size dimorphic guppy, Poecilia reticulata, in which females are typically larger than males. We either sham or experimentally infected guppies with Gyrodactylus turnbulli, elicited their escape response using an established protocol and measured the distance they covered during 60 ms. To discriminate between the effects of body size and those of other inherent sex differences, we size‐matched fish across treatment groups. Infection with G. turnbulli reduced the distance covered during the escape response of small adults by 20.1%, whereas that of large fish was unaffected. This result implies that parasite‐induced vulnerability to predation is male‐biased in the wild: although there was no difference in escape response between our experimentally size‐matched groups of males and females, males are significantly smaller across natural guppy populations. These results are consistent with Bateman's principle for immunity: Natural selection for larger body sizes and longevity in females seems to have resulted in the evolution of increased infection tolerance. We discuss the potential implications of sex‐ and size‐biased parasite‐induced vulnerability to predation for the evolutionary ecology of this host–parasite interaction in natural communities.

show abstract

Pace of life, predators and parasites: predator-induced life-history evolution in Trinidadian guppies predicts decrease in parasite tolerance

Cited by 25 publications

References 27 publications

Transmission risk predicts avoidance of infected conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies

Transmission risk predicts avoidance of infected conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies

Parallel and nonparallel behavioural evolution in response to parasitism and predation in Trinidadian guppies

A further cost for the sicker sex? Evidence for male‐biased parasite‐induced vulnerability to predation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About