Coevolution of house mice and intracellular parasites in a hybrid zone

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Emanuel Heitlinger, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Evolution, Anthropology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 285969495

Genetic elements from one species can help a second species to adapt and lead to emergence of new species or strains of pathogens. Hybridization, recombination and introgression are thus not only able to break down reproductive isolation between species but can also have converse effects. Parasitism promoting a strong adaptation of a pathogen to the animate environment of a host offers attractive opportunities for research in this context. We ask which effect hybridization of a host has on host-specific parasites and reversely which effect parasite hybridization has on the host.In the proposed project we use the European house mouse hybrid zone and unicellular parasites of the genus Eimeria to tackle these questions. The house mouse hybrid zone is a tension zone between the subspecies Mus musculus domesticus and Mus m. musculus stabilized by selection against hybrids. Genetic resources and immunological test are well established in these wild relatives of laboratory mice. Regarding Eimeria parasites the complete genome sequence of one isolate is available. We propose to comprehensively analyze genetic variability in relation to the house mouse hybrid zone to understand evolutionary processes. We will identify genomic regions correlating with parasite virulence and susceptibility of hosts. We will test the hypothesis that genes in these regions are promoting specificity for host (sub-)species. We will further test whether other virulence genes are introgressing between hybridizing parasite species or strains. Finally we will investigate whether the introgressing regions or alternatively regions correlated with subspecies specificity show patterns of pronounced divergence in species with complete reproductive isolation. Doing so we will analyze whether microevolutionary processes in the hybrid zone can lead to macroevolutionary patterns between reproductively isolated species.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants