Pace of life predicts Trinidadian guppy parasite resistance and fecundity tolerance, but not mortality tolerance
Data files
Mar 17, 2026 version files 11.68 KB
-
Inf_Dissections_Trini.csv
8.03 KB
-
README.md
3.64 KB
Abstract
Host defence against parasites can include limiting parasite growth, ‘resistance’, limiting the mortality cost of infection, ‘mortality tolerance’, and limiting the reproductive cost of infection, ‘fecundity tolerance’. Theoretically, these three host strategies have very different epidemiological and evolutionary outcomes. In particular, because of its positive effect on parasite population size, mortality tolerance should be under strong positive selection and may therefore be less variable between populations than either resistance or fecundity tolerance. Additionally, host investment in each strategy can be expected to differ between populations that experience different ecological conditions. Here, we tested how populations of Trinidadian guppies Poecilia reticulata from the upper and lower courses of three rivers responded to experimental infection with a novel strain of Gyrodactylus turnbulli. In line with theoretical predictions, we found that lower course populations, previously shown to have faster paces of life, invested less in resistance and fecundity tolerance - but not mortality tolerance - than the upper course populations with slower paces of life. Our results indicate that this host-parasite interaction both conforms to evolutionary-epidemiological theoretical predictions, and is shaped by broader ecological conditions.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0zpc867bf
Description of the data and file structure
Here we infected female guppies - Poecilia reticulata - from several different Trinidadian populations. We then dissected the females and counted their offspring.
Files and variables
File: Inf_Dissections_Trini.csv
Description: This is a csv file of the data from the experiment.
Variables
- MaternalID: Identify of the mother
- DateDissected: Date sample was dissected in YYYYMMDD format OrderDissected: For each day of dissection, order dissection occurred in (1 = 1st sample dissected on that date, 2 = 2nd, etc.)
- OffspringNumber: Number of offspring; since each offspring gets its own row, should be either 1 (with a stage in the next column) or 0 (mother had no offspring)
- OffspringDevelopmentalStage: Development stage (A-J) of offspring
- offstage: As above, but with letters converted to numbers - A=1, B=2.. etc. If no offspring were found, NA.
- offstage0: As above, but with letters converted to numbers - A=1, B=2.. etc. If no offspring were found, 0.
- DissectorInitials: Initials of dissectors (CW = Charlie Walsh, NT = Natalie Tepox)
- Batch: Infections were conducted in batches 1-3
- Population: Population of fish
- River: River the progenitors of these fish were originally collected from
- Course: River course of collection - upper vs lower
- AUC: Area under the curve of parasite over time - unit is "wormdays". NA here means that the fish didn't survive long enough in the infection for us to calculate an area under the curve of its infection - i.e. 1 day.
- D11AUC: Area under the curve of parasite over time up to day 11 of infection - unit is "wormdays". NA here means that the fish didn't survive long enough in the infection for us to calculate an area under the curve of its infection - i.e., 1 day.
- InfDeathDays: Number of days between infection and death (including euthanasia at end of experiment)
- dead11: codes whether or not the fish was dead before day 11.
- alivedays: the number of days the fish was alive from either the start of the infection (for the fish that died before day 11), or the number of days the fish was alive from day 11 (for the fish that died after day 11).
- PreDate: Date in YYYYMMDD of weighing and lengthening fish before infection
- PreWeight: Weight of fish in grams before infection
- PreLength: Length of fish in centimeters before infection
- PreSMI: Scaled mass length from before infection based on linear model predicting weight by length using preinfection metrics
- PostDate: Date in YYYYMMDD of weighing and lengthening fish after infection
- PostWeight: Weight of fish in grams after infection
- PostLength: Length of fish in centimeters after infection
- 1PostSMI: Scaled mass index from after infection based on linear model predicting weight by length using preinfection metrics
- DeltaSMI: PostSMI - PreSMI
- DoseDate: Day fish was infected in YYYYMMDD
- Dose: Total number of worms on fish for initial infection
- DeathDate: Day of death in YYYYMMDD–for fish that lasted until the last day of the experiment, date of the last day and when they were euthanized
- DonorID: the identity of the donor fish used to infect this experimental fish.
- PrematureDeath: Y if fish died before end of the experiment; N if fish was euthanized at end of experiment
Code/software
We used R statistical software to analyse the data. Any program that can open csv files will work to open the data.