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Genetic variation and prevalence of blood parasites do not correlate among bird species
Author(s) -
Poulin Robert,
Marshall Leigh J.,
Spencer Hamish G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2000.tb00633.x
Subject(s) - biology , parasite hosting , genetic variation , loss of heterozygosity , host (biology) , allele , phylogenetic tree , selection (genetic algorithm) , genetic variability , balancing selection , allele frequency , zoology , evolutionary biology , genetics , genotype , gene , artificial intelligence , world wide web , computer science
Models of host–parasite co‐evolution suggest that parasites can exert frequency‐dependent selection on their hosts, favouring rare alleles that confer resistance against widespread parasites and thus contributing to the maintenance of genetic variation, at some loci at least. If parasites are important in maintaining variation at many loci, then host species incurring a high prevalence of parasite infections should exhibit greater levels of genetic variation than host species incurring a lower prevalence. Using data from electrophoretic studies and from field surveys of haematozoan infections, we constructed a dataset including 103 species of North American and European birds to test this prediction. After controlling for sampling effort and phylogenetic influences, we found no relationship between parasite prevalence and either heterozygosity or polymorphism. These results do not support a role for parasites in the overall maintenance of genetic variation via frequency‐dependent selection.