ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 5472
Session = 12.10.7


COEVOLUTION IN PLANTS AND PATHOGENS.


Peter H. Thrall, CSIRO - Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia


Spatial structure is critical to understanding dynamics in nature, as local demes are rarely completely isolated from each other. Theory indicates that the spatial scales at which hosts and pathogens interact has consequences for pathogen dynamics and persistence, and for the evolution of resistance and virulence. Plant host-pathogen interactions are good examples of coevolutionary systems where numerical and genetic dynamics have been studied in a spatial context, and where genes under selection can be clearly identified. I will review results from studies of natural host-pathogen interactions spanning a range of life-histories and taxa. For one system, the native Australian flax and an associated rust, I focus on recent work examining resistance and virulence within a single metapopulation, and relate this to theoretical predictions for numerical and genetic patterns in metapopulations vs. single populations.


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