Biological invasions by exotic species impose substantial ecological, economic and social costs worldwide, being a major threat to biodiversity conservation. Because not all individuals introduced in the new environments become successful invaders, the identification of factors underlying variation in invasion success would be essential for evaluating invasion risk. Here, we test several host–parasite hypotheses accounting for invasion success of house sparrows Passer domesticus in Peru. According to the Enemy Release Hypothesis, invasive house sparrows from Peru showed lower prevalence and genetic diversity of haemosporidian parasites than sparrows from their natural range (Spain), indicating that the release from their natural parasites may have favoured the spread of sparrows in the new area of occurrence. We also showed that Peruvian sparrows had larger uropygial glands and higher anti‐bacterial activity in its secretion than sparrows from Spain, suggesting selection in defensive mechanisms driven by pathogens when colonizing new environments. Finally, we showed that uninfected sparrows had larger uropygial glands and higher anti‐bacterial activity than malaria‐infected house sparrows, implying that uropygial gland secretions may act as a defensive mechanism against haemosporidian infections. Alternatively, a condition‐dependent trade‐off exists between synthesis of uropygial secretion and immune response. These outcomes provide essential information for identifying potential invaders and designing interventions.
Characterizing the diversity and structure of host-parasite communities is crucial to understanding their eco-evolutionary dynamics. Malaria and related haemosporidian parasites are responsible for fitness loss and mortality in bird species worldwide. However, despite exhibiting the greatest ornithological biodiversity, avian haemosporidians from Neotropical regions are quite unexplored. Here, we analyse the genetic diversity of bird haemosporidian parasites (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in 1,336 individuals belonging to 206 bird species to explore for differences in diversity of parasite lineages and bird species across five well-differentiated Peruvian ecoregions. We detected 70 different haemosporidian lineages infecting 74 bird species. We showed that 25 out of the 70 haplotypes had not been previously recorded. Moreover, we also identified 81 new host – parasite interactions representing new host records for these haemosporidian parasites. Our outcomes revealed that the effective diversity (as well as the richness, abundance, and Shannon-Weaver index) for both birds and parasite lineages was higher in Amazon basin ecoregions. Furthermore, we also showed that ecoregions with greater diversity of bird species also had high parasite richness, hence suggesting that host community is crucial in explaining parasite richness. Generalist parasites were found in ecoregions with lower bird diversity, implying that the abundance and richness of hosts may shape the exploitation strategy followed by haemosporidian parasites. These outcomes reveal that Neotropical region is a major reservoir of unidentified haemosporidian lineages. Further studies analysing host distribution and specificity of these parasites in the tropics will provide important knowledge about phylogenetic relationships, phylogeography, and patterns of evolution and distribution of haemosporidian parasites.
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