Abstract
Understanding evolutionary dynamics of pathogens during domestication of their hosts and rise of agro-ecosystems is essential for durable disease management. Here, we investigated changes in life-history traits of the fungal pathogen Venturia inaequalis during domestication of the apple. Life traits linked to fungal dispersal were compared between 60 strains that were sampled in domestic and wild habitats in Kazakhstan, the center of origin of both host and pathogen. Our two main findings are that transition from wild to agro-ecosystems was associated with an increase of both spore size and sporulation capacity; and that distribution of quantitative traits of the domestic population mostly overlapped with those of the wild population. Our results suggest that apple domestication had a considerable impact on fungal characters linked to its dispersal through selection from standing phenotypic diversity. We showed that pestification of V. inaequalis in orchards led to an enhanced allocation in colonization ability from standing variation in the wild area. This study emphasizes the potential threat that pathogenic fungal populations living in wild environments represent for durability of resistance in agro-ecosystems.
Highlights
While the impact of domestication on many organisms has been well described [1,2,3,4], little attention has been paid to the evolutionary dynamics of pathogens during domestication of their hosts and rise of agro-ecosystems [5, 6]
We chose strains that had been sampled on M. sieversii, the main wild Asian ancestor of the domestic apple tree, located in a wild forest and in the suburbs of Almaty
Strains from the latter location, sampled on M. sieversii trees, have been shown to belong to a population that is present on domestic apple trees [29, 30]
Summary
While the impact of domestication on many organisms has been well described [1,2,3,4], little attention has been paid to the evolutionary dynamics of pathogens during domestication of their hosts and rise of agro-ecosystems [5, 6]. Domestication of plants and animals is one of the most important advances in agriculture in the past 13,000 years. It can be defined as an evolutionary process triggered by the anthropogenic selection of individuals from wild populations based on agronomic criteria [7]. Continuous selection of wild species to new anthropic environments like agro-ecosystems has governed our current diet, the rise of civilizations and the world population demography. Anthropic selection based on some phenotypic traits resulted in a strong accumulation of fixation of alleles, some of them being adaptive, in the genomes of domesticated plants [1, 4, 8], PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0122909 June 19, 2015
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
