The Role of Host-Range Expansion and Co-Speciation in Host–Parasite Associations With the Divergence of the Great Tit Species Complex
Date
2025-01-21
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ecology and Evolution
Abstract
During the evolution of parasites, co-speciation and host-range expansion are thought to play roles in establishing associations with hosts, while sorting events can lead to dissolution of those associations. To address the roles of these processes, we focus on avian haemosporidian parasites infecting hosts of the intensively studied great tit species complex. We estimated the phylogeography of lineages detected in the species complex, and quantified their transition probabilities among hosts. Lineages detected in different host species presented a strong geographical signal but did not form monophyletic groups. Yet, distributions of lineages are not merely the result of their dispersal limitations, as many lineages that infect only one focal species can be found in birds sympatric with other focal species. Besides, closely related lineages that infect the same host species reach more similar rates of infection than expected by chance. Finally, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon lineages infecting P. major, the most recently dispersed species, were more generalized than others, consistent with a pattern of generalist parasites expanding their host ranges by infecting newly encountered host species. Our results suggest that host–parasite associations in this system are mainly the result of sorting events and host-range expansion of parasites, rather than co-speciation.
Description
This article was originally published in Ecology and Evolution. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70859.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2025 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords
haemosporidian, host–parasite association, host-range expansion, Parus major, phylogeography
Citation
Huang, X., Ellis, V.A., Peng, Y., Ishtiaq, F., Wang, H., Liang, W., Wu, Q., Bensch, S. and Dong, L. (2025), The Role of Host-Range Expansion and Co-Speciation in Host–Parasite Associations With the Divergence of the Great Tit Species Complex. Ecol Evol, 15: e70859. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70859