Local vs allopatric parasites: Acanthocephalan from a different watershed is associated with different infection strategy in definitive host
Abstract
Understanding how infection-related traits vary across parasite populations and host stages is key to predicting host-parasite dynamics in complex life cycles. We tested whether the geographic origin of the acanthocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis influences infection success in both its intermediate (Gammarus pulex) and definitive (Squalius cephalus) hosts. Parasite eggs from two watersheds (Seine and Saône) were used to infect naïve gammarids and subsequent larval stages of the parasites were used to infect naïve fish (from the Seine). Parasites from the Saône showed significantly higher infection success and virulence in gammarids than those from the Seine, including reduced survival even in exposed but uninfected individuals, revealing strong population-level differences in infection traits. When analyses were restricted to low infection intensities, differences in gammarid survival persisted, indicating that these effects were not solely due to parasite load. Fish in the Seine basin were more successfully infected by local parasites, but differences relative to parasites from the Saône remained modest. Overall, our results highlight that population-level variation in parasite performance can generate asymmetric infection patterns across host stages, emphasizing the importance of considering the full life cycle in studies of parasite evolution and host-parasite dynamics.
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BibTeX
@article{lorrainsoligon2026local,
title = {{Local vs allopatric parasites: Acanthocephalan from a different watershed is associated with different infection strategy in definitive host}},
author = {Léa Lorrain-Soligon and Alexandre Bauer and Thierry Rigaud and Jean‐emmanuel Rollin and Simon Agostini and Beatriz Decencière and Alexis Millot and Aurélie Goutte},
journal = {Journal of Zoology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1111/jzo.70174},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05844410v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Local vs allopatric parasites: Acanthocephalan from a different watershed is associated with different infection strategy in definitive host
AU - Léa Lorrain-Soligon
AU - Alexandre Bauer
AU - Thierry Rigaud
AU - Jean‐emmanuel Rollin
AU - Simon Agostini
AU - Beatriz Decencière
AU - Alexis Millot
AU - Aurélie Goutte
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Journal of Zoology
DO - 10.1111/jzo.70174
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05844410v1
AB - Understanding how infection-related traits vary across parasite populations and host stages is key to predicting host-parasite dynamics in complex life cycles. We tested whether the geographic origin of the acanthocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis influences infection success in both its intermediate (Gammarus pulex) and definitive (Squalius cephalus) hosts. Parasite eggs from two watersheds (Seine and Saône) were used to infect naïve gammarids and subsequent larval stages of the parasites were used to infect naïve fish (from the Seine). Parasites from the Saône showed significantly higher infection success and virulence in gammarids than those from the Seine, including reduced survival even in exposed but uninfected individuals, revealing strong population-level differences in infection traits. When analyses were restricted to low infection intensities, differences in gammarid survival persisted, indicating that these effects were not solely due to parasite load. Fish in the Seine basin were more successfully infected by local parasites, but differences relative to parasites from the Saône remained modest. Overall, our results highlight that population-level variation in parasite performance can generate asymmetric infection patterns across host stages, emphasizing the importance of considering the full life cycle in studies of parasite evolution and host-parasite dynamics.
SN - 0952-8369
SN - 1469-7998
ER -