SREL Reprint #3610

Host phylogeny matters: Examining sources of variation in infection risk by blood parasites across a tropical montane bird community in India

Pooja Gupta1,2,3, C. K. Vishnudas4, V. V. Robin4, and Guha Dharmarajan1,3

1Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC, USA
2Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
3Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, West Bengal 741246, India
4Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati, Mangalam, Tirupati 517507, India

Background: Identifying patterns and drivers of infection risk among host communities is crucial to elucidate disease dynamics and predict infectious disease risk in wildlife populations. Blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus are a diverse group of vector-borne protozoan parasites that affect bird populations globally. Despite their widespread distribution and exceptional diversity, factors underlying haemosporidian infection risk in wild bird communities remain poorly understood. While some studies have examined variation in avian haemosporidian risk, researchers have primarily focused on host ecological traits without considering host phylogenetic relationships. In this study, we employ a phylogenetically informed approach to examine the association between host ecological traits and haemosporidian infection risk in endemic bird communities in the Western Ghats Sky Islands.
Methods: We used parasite sequence data based on partial mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, that was amplifed from genomic DNA extracted from 1177 birds (28 species) across the Western Ghats to assess infection of birds with haemosporidian parasites. We employed a Bayesian phylogenetic mixed effect modelling approach to test whether haemosporidian infection risk was affected by seven species-specific and four individual-level ecological predictors. We also examined the effect of host phylogenetic relationships on the observed patterns of variation in haemosporidian infection risk by estimating phylogenetic signal.
Results: Our study shows that host ecological traits and host phylogeny differentially infuence infection risk by Plasmodium (generalist parasite) and Haemoproteus (specialist parasite). For Plasmodium, we found that sociality, sexual dimorphism and foraging strata were important ecological predictors. For Haemoproteus, patterns of infection risk among host species were associated with sociality, species elevation and individual body condition. Interestingly, variance in infection risk explained by host phylogeny was higher for Haemoproteus parasites compared to Plasmodium.

Keywords: Avian haemosporidians, Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, Ecological traits, Host phylogeny,
Infection dynamics, Western Ghats, India

SREL Reprint #3610

Gupta, P., C. K. Vishnudas, V. V. Robin, and G. Dharmarajan. 2020. Host phylogeny matters: Examining sources of variation in infection risk by blood parasites across a tropical montane bird community in India. Parasites and Vectors 13(2020): 536.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).