Key determinants of resistance durability to plant viruses: Insights from a model linking within- and between-host dynamics

Abstract

The emergence of new genotypes of parasites involves several evolutionary, epidemiological and ecological processes whose individual effects and interactions are difficult to disentangle using experimental approaches. Here, a model is proposed to investigate how these processes lead to the emergence of plant viral genotypes breaking down qualitative resistance genes. At the individual plant scale, selection, drift and mutation processes shape the evolution of viral populations from a set of differential equations. The spatial segregation of virus genotypes in their hosts is also considered. At the host population scale, the epidemiological dynamics is given by an individual-based algorithm. Global sensitivity analyses allowed ranking the ten demo-genetic and epidemiological parameters of the model according to their impact on the mean and variance of the risk of breakdown of a plant resistance. Demo-genetic parameters (number and nature of mutations involved in breakdown, fitness of mutant genotypes) had the largest impact on the mean breakdown risk, whereas epidemiological parameters had more influence on its standard deviation. It is discussed how these results can be used to choose the potentially most durable resistance genes among a pool of candidates. Finally, our analyses point out the parameters which should be estimated more precisely to improve durability predictions.