Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, GA, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Nov 8;376(1837):20200351. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0351. Epub 2021 Sep 20.
A growing body of research is focused on the extinction of parasite species in response to host endangerment and declines. Beyond the loss of parasite species richness, host extinction can impact apparent parasite host specificity, as measured by host richness or the phylogenetic distances among hosts. Such impacts on the distribution of parasites across the host phylogeny can have knock-on effects that may reshape the adaptation of both hosts and parasites, ultimately shifting the evolutionary landscape underlying the potential for emergence and the evolution of virulence across hosts. Here, we examine how the reshaping of host phylogenies through extinction may impact the host specificity of parasites, and offer examples from historical extinctions, present-day endangerment, and future projections of biodiversity loss. We suggest that an improved understanding of the impact of host extinction on contemporary host-parasite interactions may shed light on core aspects of disease ecology, including comparative studies of host specificity, virulence evolution in multi-host parasite systems, and future trajectories for host and parasite biodiversity. This article is part of the theme issue 'Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe'.
越来越多的研究集中在寄生虫物种因宿主濒危和减少而灭绝的问题上。除了寄生虫物种丰富度的丧失之外，宿主灭绝还会影响到宿主丰富度或宿主之间的系统发育距离所衡量的明显寄生虫宿主特异性。这种对寄生虫在宿主系统发育中分布的影响可能会产生连锁反应，从而重塑宿主和寄生虫的适应能力，最终改变潜在的出现和跨宿主毒力进化的进化景观。在这里，我们研究了通过灭绝重塑宿主系统发育可能会如何影响寄生虫的宿主特异性，并从历史灭绝、当前濒危和未来生物多样性丧失的预测中提供了一些例子。我们认为，更好地了解宿主灭绝对当代宿主-寄生虫相互作用的影响，可能有助于揭示疾病生态学的核心方面，包括宿主特异性的比较研究、多宿主寄生虫系统中的毒力进化，以及宿主和寄生虫生物多样性的未来轨迹。本文是主题为“传染病宏观生态学：全球范围内的寄生虫多样性和动态”的一部分。
