Host body size, not host population size, predicts genome-wide effective population size of parasites

Abstract

The effective population size (Ne) of an organism is expected to be generally proportional to the total number of individuals in a population. In parasites, we might expect the effective population size to be proportional to host population size and host body size, because both are expected to increase the number of parasite individuals. However, among other factors, parasite populations are sometimes so extremely subdivided that high levels of inbreeding may distort these predicted relationships. Here, we used whole-genome sequence data from dove parasites (71 feather louse species of the genus Columbicola) and phylogenetic comparative methods to study the relationship between parasite effective population size and host population size and body size.We found that parasite effective population size is largely explained by host body size but not host population size. These results suggest the potential local population size (infrapopulation or deme size) is more predictive of the long-term effective population size of parasites than is the total number of potential parasite infrapopulations (i.e., host individuals). Impact Summary Parasites, among Earth’s most diverse, threatened, and under-protected animals, play a central role in ecosystem function. The effective population size (Ne) of an organism has a profound impact on evolutionary processes, such as the relative contributions of selection and genetic drift to genomic change. Population size is also one of the most important parameters in conservation biology. For free-living organisms, it is expected that Ne is generally proportional to the total number of individuals in a population. However, for parasites, among other factors, populations are sometimes so extremely subdivided that high levels of inbreeding may distort these relationships. In this study, we used whole-genome sequence data from dove parasites and phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate the relationship between parasite effective population size (Ne) and host population size and body size. Our results revealed a positive relationship between parasite effective population size (Ne) and host body size, but not host population size. These results suggest that the size of parasite infrapopulations may be the most important factor when considering parasite effective population size, and have important implications for conservation.