2023/06/16 by Eric Dexter, Peter D. Fields, Dieter Ebert · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Immunology and Microbiology · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences #Vector-borne infectious diseases
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/molbev/msad145
openalex publication_date 2023/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Understanding the genomic basis of infectious disease is a fundamental objective in co-evolutionary theory with relevance to healthcare, agriculture, and epidemiology. Models of host-parasite co-evolution often assume that infection requires specific combinations of host and parasite genotypes. Co-evolving host and parasite loci are, therefore, expected to show associations that reflect an underlying infection/resistance allele matrix, yet little evidence for such genome-to-genome interactions has been observed among natural populations. We conducted a study to search for this genomic signature across 258 linked host (Daphnia magna) and parasite (Pasteuria ramosa) genomes. Our results show a clear signal of genomic association between multiple epistatically interacting loci in the host genome, and a family of genes encoding for collagen-like protein in the parasite genome. These findings are supported by laboratory-based infection trials, which show strong correspondence between phenotype and genotype at the identified loci. Our study provides clear genomic evidence of antagonistic co-evolution among wild populations.