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Review article2016Peer reviewedOpen access

Phenotypic interactions between tree hosts and invasive forest pathogens in the light of globalization and climate change

Stenlid, Jan; Oliva, Jonàs

Abstract

Invasive pathogens can cause considerable damage to forest ecosystems. Lack of coevolution is generally thought to enable invasive pathogens to bypass the defence and/or recognition systems in the host. Although mostly true, this argument fails to predict intermittent outcomes in space and time, underlining the need to include the roles of the environment and the phenotype in host-pathogen interactions when predicting disease impacts. We emphasize the need to consider host-tree imbalances from a phenotypic perspective, considering the lack of coevolutionary and evolutionary history with the pathogen and the environment, respectively. We describe how phenotypic plasticity and plastic responses to environmental shifts may become maladaptive when hosts are faced with novel pathogens. The lack of host-pathogen and environmental coevolution are aligned with two global processes currently driving forest damage: globalization and climate change, respectively. We suggest that globalization and climate change act synergistically, increasing the chances of both genotypic and phenotypic imbalances. Short moves on the same continent are more likely to be in balance than if the move is from another part of the world. We use Gremmeniella abietina outbreaks in Sweden to exemplify how host-pathogen phenotypic interactions can help to predict the impacts of specific invasive and emergent diseases.This article is part of the themed issue 'Tackling emerging fungal threats to animal health, food security and ecosystem resilience'.

Keywords

emergent disease; phenotypic plasticity; maladaptive phenotype; lack of coevolution

Published in

Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences
2016, Volume: 371, number: 1709, article number: 20150455
Publisher: ROYAL SOC

      SLU Authors

      • Associated SLU-program

      Future Forests (until Jan 2017)
      SLU Future Forests
      SLU Plant Protection Network

      Sustainable Development Goals

      SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

      UKÄ Subject classification

      Forest Science

      Publication identifier

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0455

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/80085