Hybrid susceptibility to Dactylogyrus (Monogenea) parasites infection: a measure of hybrid vigour
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | Hybridization is a common phenomenon reported in fish species. The present study was focused on the analyses of monogenean parasite infection (i.e., the intensity of infection of the dominant parasite group – Dactylogyrus species) in two species with higher evolutionary divergence, common bream (Abramis brama) and roach (Rutilus rutilus) and their hybrids representing F1 generations and backcross generations. We hypothesized low parasite intensity of infection in F1 generation in line with hybrid heterosis and high parasite intensity of infection in backcross generation in line with hybrid breakdown. We found that hybrids (F1 and backcross) harbored more species of Dactylogyrus when compared to each of the parental species. In contrast, abundance of Dactylogyrus species was higher in parental species and backcrosses when compared with F1 hybrids. In addition, backcross generations harboured a majority of the specific parasites of both parental species; however, only one roach-specific Dactylogyrus parasite, D. fallax, was completely absent in backcross generations. Our results may indicate gene disruption in backcross generations due to mitochondrial-nuclear genome incompatibilities and highlight that hybrid genomes limit their susceptibility to these parasites that primarily coevolve with their hosts |
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