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Mate Finding, Sexual Spore Production, and the Spread of Fungal Plant Parasites
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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Sexual reproduction and dispersal are often coupled in organisms mixing
sexual and asexual reproduction, such as fungi. The aim of this study is to evaluate the
impact of mate limitation on the spreading speed of fungal plant parasites. Starting
from a simple model with two coupled partial differential equations, we take advantage
of the fact that we are interested in the dynamics over large spatial and temporal scales
to reduce the model to a single equation. We obtain a simple expression for speed of
spread, accounting for both sexual and asexual reproduction. Taking Black Sigatoka
disease of banana plants as a case study, the model prediction is in close agreement
with the actual spreading speed (100km per year), whereas a similar model without
mate limitation predicts a wave speed one order of magnitude greater. We discuss
the implications of these results to control parasites in which sexual reproduction and
dispersal are intrinsically coupled. -
- Date created
- 2016-03-14
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- Type of Item
- Article (Draft / Submitted)