Priority effects alter the colonization success of a host-associated parasite and mutualist.
Ecology
; 103(8): e3720, 2022 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35396706
ABSTRACT
Priority effects shape the assembly of free-living communities and host-associated communities. However, the current literature does not fully incorporate two features of host-symbiont interactions, correlated host responses to multiple symbionts and ontogenetic changes in host responses to symbionts, leading to an incomplete picture of the role of priority effects in host-associated communities. We factorially manipulated the inoculation timing of two plant symbionts (mutualistic rhizobia bacteria and parasitic root-knot nematodes) and tested how host age at arrival, arrival order, and arrival synchrony affected symbiont colonization success in the model legume Medicago truncatula. We found that host age, arrival order, and arrival synchrony significantly affected colonization of one or both symbionts. Host age at arrival only affected nematodes but not rhizobia younger plants were more heavily infected than older plants. By contrast, arrival order only affected rhizobia but not nematodes plants formed more rhizobia nodules when rhizobia arrived before nematodes. Finally, synchronous arrival decreased colonization both symbionts, an effect that depended on host age. Our results demonstrate that priority effects compromise the host's ability to control colonization by two major symbionts and suggest that the role of correlated host responses and host ontogeny in the assembly of host-associated communities deserve further attention.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Parasites
/
Rhizobium
/
Medicago truncatula
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Ecology
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: