Coevolutionary arms races: increased host immune defense promotes specialization by avian fleas

Moller, A. P. and Christe, P. and Garamszegi, László Zsolt (2005) Coevolutionary arms races: increased host immune defense promotes specialization by avian fleas. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 18 (1). pp. 46-59. ISSN 1010-061X (print), 1420-9101 (online)

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Abstract

We investigated the relationship between host defense and specialization by parasites in comparative analyses of bird fleas and T-cell mediated immune response of their avian hosts, showing that fleas with few main host species exploited hosts with weak or strong immune defenses, whereas flea species that parasitized a large number of host species only exploited hosts with weak immune responses. Hosts with strong immune responses were exploited by a larger number of flea species than hosts with weak responses. A path analysis model with an effect of T-cell response on the number of host species, or a model with host coloniality directly affecting host T-cell response, which in turn affected the number of host species used by fleas, best explained the data. Therefore, parasite specialization may have evolved in response to strong host defenses.

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