Phylogenetic trees support the coevolution of parasites and their hosts

Abstract

The close correspondence often observed between the taxonomy of parasites and their hosts has led to Fahrenholz's rule, which postulates that parasites and their hosts speciate in synchrony. This leads to the prediction that phylogenetic trees of parasites and their hosts should be topologically identical. We report here a test of this prediction which involves the construction of phylogenetic trees for rodents and their ectoparasites using protein electrophoretic data. We find a high degree of concordance in the branching patterns of the trees which suggests that there is a history of cospeciation in this host-parasite assemblage. In several cases where the branching patterns were identical in the host and parasite phylogenies, the branch lengths were also very similar which, given the assumptions of molecular clock theory, strongly suggests that the speciation of these hosts and ectoparasites was roughly contemporaneous and causally related.

Phylogenetic congruence between subtropical trees and their associated fungi

“…Because the sampled individuals were randomly selected across the 20‐ha area and not spatially autocorrelated or phylogenetically clustered, a plausible explanation is that host species coevolve with their plant‐associated fungi. Parallel patterns of phylogenetic trees have been found between host rodents and their lice (Hafner & Nadler, 1988) and between ants and fungi (Hinkle, Wetterer, Schultz, & Sogin, 1994), which suggests that these host–parasite assemblages have coevolved. Coevolution between hosts and their natural enemies, including viruses, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, insects, and mammals, is believed to have generated much of the Earth's biological diversity (Thompson, 2014).…”

Trees within trees: phylogeny and historical associations

“…Processes such as gene duplication, lineage sorting and horizontal transfer can produce complex gene trees that differ from organismal trees 3,7,8 . Associations between organisms, such as between hosts and their parasites 9 (including viruses 10 ), endosymbionts and their hosts 11 , and insects and plants 12,13 , can have a long evolutionary history, which is reflected in similarities between their evolutionary trees 14 . At a larger scale still, organisms can track geological history such that sequences of geological events (e.g.…”

A Different Tempo of Mitochondrial DNA Evolution in Birds and Their Parasitic Lice

“…On the basis of this close ecological association and the apparent correspondence between some avian and louse taxonomic groupings it appears that there has been extensive parallel cladogenesis between lice and their hosts (Clay, 1949;Mauersberger and Mey, 1993). Despite rapid advances in avian and mammalian systematics (Allard et al, 1996;Sheldon and Bledsoe, 1993;Sibley and Ahlquist, 1990) there have been few phylogenetic hypotheses of cospeciation between particular groups of birds or mammals and their lice (Hafner and Nadler, 1988;Kim, 1988;Paterson and Gray, 1997;Paterson et al, 1993Paterson et al, , 1995. One reason for this limited evidence bearing on whether lice have cospeciated with their hosts is the need for robust phylogenies for both groups.…”