Abstract
Co-evolution between plants and parasites, including herbivores and pathogens, has arguably generated much of Earth’s biological diversity. Within an ecosystem, co-evolution of plants and pathogens is a stepwise reciprocal evolutionary interaction: epidemics result in intense selection pressures on both host and pathogen populations, ultimately allowing long-term persistence and ecosystem stability. Historically, plants, and pathogens evolved in unique regional assemblages, largely isolated from other assemblages by geographical barriers. When barriers are broken, non-indigenous pathogenic organisms are introduced into new environments, potentially finding suitable hosts lacking resistance genes and environments favouring pathogenic behavior; this process may result in epidemics of newly emerging diseases. Biological invasions are tightly linked to human activities and have been a constant feature throughout human history.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 647-652 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | The ISME Journal |
Volume | 12 |
Early online date | 12 Jan 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Acknowledgments.We apologize to all those colleagues whose work was not cited because of space restrictions.
Keywords
- human migrations
- alien invasive pathogens
- plant trade
- plant for planting
- plant hunters
- famine
- geopolitics