Plant chemistry can strongly influence interactions between herbivores and their natural enemies, either by providing volatile compounds that serve as foraging cues for parasitoids or predators, or by affecting the quality of herbivores as hosts or prey. Through these effects plants may influence parasitoid population genetic structure. We tested for a possible specialization on specific crop p...

Host-to-host variability with respect to interactions between microorganisms and multicellular hosts are commonly observed in infection and in homeostasis. However, the majority of mechanistic models used to analyze host-microorganism relationships, as well as most of the ecological theories proposed to explain coevolution of hosts and microbes, are based on averages across a host population. B...

ABSTRACT- Several species of aphids cause severe damage to citrus in the north of Iran. Predatory insects play an important role in biological control of the pests in citrus orchards. In this study, potential predatory insects of citrus aphids, Aphis spiraecola, A. gossypii and Toxoptera aurantii, were identified and their seasonal population dynamics...

In field experiments manipulating generalist pathogens and host community composition, the presence of a highly susceptible reservoir species drove disease dynamics in multiple nonreservoir species, sometimes decreasing their abundance through apparent competition. The dynamics of generalist pathogens in multispecies host communities remain a major frontier for disease ecology. Of particular in...

A series of serial passages of Triticum mosaic virus (TriMV) was performed in winter wheat under greenhouse conditions to examine the dynamics of sequence variation in the TriMV population. The variation within the protein 1 (P1) and the coat protein (CP) of TriMV was assessed by single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) assay, followed by nucleotide sequencing. Three lineages were estab...

Biological indicators are species that can be employed to monitor environmental quality and ecosystem health. Different groups of organisms such as plants, animals, bacteria and parasites regularly produce certain molecular signal in response to changes in their environmental milieu. Parasites are important tools for providing wealth of information on physicochemical quality, environmental stre...

biological indicators are species that can be employed to monitor environmental quality and ecosystem health. different groups of organisms such as plants, animals, bacteria and parasites regularly produce certain molecular signal in response to changes in their environmental milieu. parasites are important tools for providing wealth of information on physicochemical quality, environmental stre...

Parasite population structure is often thought to be largely shaped by that of its host. In the case of a parasite with a complex life cycle, two host species, each with their own patterns of demography and migration, spread the parasite. However, the population structure of the parasite is predicted to resemble only that of the most vagile host species. In this study, we tested this prediction...

A total of 246 isolates representing five species of the family Enterobacteriaceae, taken from a variety of Australian mammal species, were characterized using multi-locus enzyme electrophoresis. Genome diversity estimates varied significantly among species, with the Klebsiella pneumoniae sample exhibiting the lowest diversity and the Citrobacter freundii sample the highest. Multi-locus linkage...

In the interaction between two ecologically-associated species, the population structure of one species may affect the population structure of the other. Here, we examine the population structures of the aphid Metopeurum fuscoviride, a specialist on tansy Tanacetum vulgare, and its specialist primary hymenopterous parasitoid Lysiphlebus hirticornis, both of which are characterized by multivolti...