Suvi Sallinen

Evolutionary ecologist

Coinfection with a virus constrains within‐host infection load but increases transmission potential of a highly virulent fungal plant pathogen


Journal article


H. Susi, Suvi Sallinen, Anna‐Liisa Laine
Ecology and Evolution, 2022

Semantic Scholar DOI PubMedCentral PubMed
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APA   Click to copy
Susi, H., Sallinen, S., & Laine, A. L. (2022). Coinfection with a virus constrains within‐host infection load but increases transmission potential of a highly virulent fungal plant pathogen. Ecology and Evolution.


Chicago/Turabian   Click to copy
Susi, H., Suvi Sallinen, and Anna‐Liisa Laine. “Coinfection with a Virus Constrains within‐Host Infection Load but Increases Transmission Potential of a Highly Virulent Fungal Plant Pathogen.” Ecology and Evolution (2022).


MLA   Click to copy
Susi, H., et al. “Coinfection with a Virus Constrains within‐Host Infection Load but Increases Transmission Potential of a Highly Virulent Fungal Plant Pathogen.” Ecology and Evolution, 2022.


BibTeX   Click to copy

@article{h2022a,
  title = {Coinfection with a virus constrains within‐host infection load but increases transmission potential of a highly virulent fungal plant pathogen},
  year = {2022},
  journal = {Ecology and Evolution},
  author = {Susi, H. and Sallinen, Suvi and Laine, Anna‐Liisa}
}

Abstract

Abstract The trade‐off between within‐host infection rate and transmission to new hosts is predicted to constrain pathogen evolution, and to maintain polymorphism in pathogen populations. Pathogen life‐history stages and their correlations that underpin infection development may change under coinfection with other parasites as they compete for the same limited host resources. Cross‐kingdom interactions are common among pathogens in both natural and cultivated systems, yet their impacts on disease ecology and evolution are rarely studied. The host plant Plantago lanceolata is naturally infected by both Phomopsis subordinaria, a seed killing fungus, as well as Plantago lanceolata latent virus (PlLV) in the Åland Islands, SW Finland. We performed an inoculation assay to test whether coinfection with PlLV affects performance of two P. subordinaria strains, and the correlation between within‐host infection rate and transmission potential. The strains differed in the measured life‐history traits and their correlations. Moreover, we found that under virus coinfection, within‐host infection rate of P. subordinaria was smaller but transmission potential was higher compared to strains under single infection. The negative correlation between within‐host infection rate and transmission potential detected under single infection became positive under coinfection with PlLV. To understand whether within‐host and between‐host dynamics are correlated in wild populations, we surveyed 260 natural populations of P. lanceolata for P. subordinaria infection occurrence. When infections were found, we estimated between‐hosts dynamics by determining pathogen population size as the proportion of infected individuals, and within‐host dynamics by counting the proportion of infected flower stalks in 10 infected plants. In wild populations, the proportion of infected flower stalks was positively associated with pathogen population size. Jointly, our results suggest that the trade‐off between within‐host infection load and transmission may be strain specific, and that the pathogen life‐history that underpin epidemics may change depending on the diversity of infection, generating variation in disease dynamics.