Kelly C K, Horning K
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Nov 9;96(23):13219-22. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.23.13219.
Field observations showed that in its native Texas grasslands, dodder (Cuscuta attenuata) grows more vigorously in patches of mixed host species than in monospecific host patches. Field experiments with naturally occurring host individuals demonstrated that the parasite achieved greater volume when simultaneously infesting two hosts of differing species rather than two hosts of the same species, and that this effect depends on the order in which the parasite encounters those hosts. Sodium, acting as an osmoticum, is implicated as the factor responsible for experimentally produced as well as observed field patterns.
实地观察表明,在其原生的得克萨斯草原上,菟丝子(Cuscuta attenuata)在混合寄主物种斑块中比在单一寄主斑块中生长得更旺盛。对自然生长的寄主个体进行的田间实验表明,该寄生虫同时侵染两种不同物种的寄主时比侵染两种相同物种的寄主时体积更大,并且这种效应取决于寄生虫遇到这些寄主的顺序。作为一种渗透压物质的钠被认为是导致实验产生的以及观察到的田间模式的因素。