Beyond the paradigms of cospeciation and host-switch: is sympatric speciation an important mode of speciation for parasites?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Life and Environment |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Zoology |
| Keywords | Sympatric speciation - intrahost speciation - cospeciation - species flocks - congeneric species |
| Description | The great majority of studies on host-parasite associations, either theoretical or empirical, have focused on cospeciation and host-switch minimizing the importance of sympatric speciation, a mode of speciation that can be also defined as intra-host speciation. Sympatric speciation is considered when a single host species is infested by a monophyletic parasite lineage. The parasite speciates without a corresponding host cospeciation event and this leads to two or more lineages of parasites on single host species. A recent study illustrates how the diversification of Dactylogyrus spp. parasitizing cyprinid fish meets the four conditions required to recognize a case of sympatric speciation, according to Coyne (2007). However, inferring mode of speciation does not help to depict the mechanism of sympatric/intra-host speciation and theoretical model of competitive speciation can be useful to investigate the conditions of sympatric speciation in parasites; as it has been already done for free-living organisms. Finally we aim at highlighting that diversification of parasites through intra-host speciation is maybe a prevalent mode of speciation in parasites, as the numerous number of parasite species flocks could suggest, and that parasites in themselves are also good models for investigating the mechanisms of sympatric speciation. |
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