Data from: Local adaptation at higher trophic levels: contrasting hyperparasite-pathogen infection dynamics in the field and laboratory
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2016-11-15, 2016-11-15
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Predicting and controlling infectious disease epidemics is a major challenge facing the management of agriculture, human and wildlife health. Coevolutionarily derived patterns of local adaptation among pathogen populations have the potential to generate variation in disease epidemiology, however studies of local adaptation in disease systems have mostly focused on interactions between competing pathogens or pathogens and their hosts. In nature, parasites and pathogens are also subject to attack by hyperparasitic natural enemies that can severely impact upon their infection dynamics. However, few studies have investigated if this interaction varies across combinations of pathogen-hyperparasite strains, and if this influences hyperparasite incidence in natural pathogen populations. Here, we test if the association between a hyperparasitic fungus, Ampelomyces quisqualis, and a single powdery mildew host, Podosphaera plantaginis, varies among genotype combinations, and whether this drives hyperparasite incidence in nature. Laboratory inoculation studies reveal that genotype, genotype x genotype interactions, and local adaptation affect hyperparasite infection. However, observations of a natural pathogen metapopulation reveal that spatial rather than genetic factors predict the risk of hyperparasite presence. Our results highlight how sensitive the outcome of biocontrol using hyperparasites is to selection of hyperparasite strains.