Abstract
Under the Red Queen hypothesis, outcrossing can produce genetically variable progeny, which may be more resistant, on average, to locally adapted parasites. Mating with multiple partners may enhance this resistance by further increasing the genetic variation among offspring. We exposed Potamopyrgus antipodarum to the eggs of a sterilizing, trematode parasite and tested whether this altered mating behaviour. We found that exposure to parasites increased the number of snail mating pairs and the total number of different mating partners for both males and females. Thus, our results suggest that, in host populations under parasite-mediated selection, exposure to infective propagules increases the rate of mating and the number of mates.
Highlights
Infectious diseases are ubiquitous and often substantially reduce host fitness [1]
According to the Red Queen hypothesis, selection imposed by virulent, coevolving parasites can select for sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction, because of the diversifying genetic effects that recombination and outcrossing have on offspring [2,3,4]
Under the Red Queen Hypothesis, outcrossing can produce genetically variable progeny, which may be more resistant than asexually produced progeny, on average, to coevolving parasites [2,3,4,13,25]
Summary
Infectious diseases are ubiquitous and often substantially reduce host fitness [1]. According to the Red Queen hypothesis, selection imposed by virulent, coevolving parasites can select for sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction, because of the diversifying genetic effects that recombination and outcrossing have on offspring [2,3,4]. The genetic diversity of offspring may be further increased if females choose dissimilar mates [5,6,7] or mate with multiple males [8,9,10]. In particular, has been shown to generate higher genotypic diversity among offspring than sex and recombination alone [11]. We test the hypothesis that exposure to parasites increases multiple mating in a freshwater snail. Previous studies on this host–parasite system have revealed parasite-mediated selection against common host genotypes, as well as strong local adaptation by the parasite [13,14]. The goal for this study was to determine whether sexual females of this snail could be induced by exposure to parasites to increase their rate of mating and the number of partners
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