Published in

The Royal Society, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 1927(287), p. 20200787, 2020

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0787

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The evolution of host resistance and parasite infectivity is highest in seasonal resource environments that oscillate at intermediate amplitudes

Journal article published in 2020 by Charlotte Ferris ORCID, Rosanna Wright, Michael A. Brockhurst ORCID, Alex Best
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Seasonal environments vary in their amplitude of oscillation but the effects of this temporal heterogeneity for host–parasite coevolution are poorly understood. Here, we combined mathematical modelling and experimental evolution of a coevolving bacteria–phage interaction to show that the intensity of host–parasite coevolution peaked in environments that oscillate in their resource supply with intermediate amplitude. Our experimentally parameterized mathematical model explains that this pattern is primarily driven by the ecological effects of resource oscillations on host growth rates. Our findings suggest that in host–parasite systems where the host's but not the parasite's population growth dynamics are subject to seasonal forcing, the intensity of coevolution will peak at intermediate amplitudes but be constrained at extreme amplitudes of environmental oscillation.