A key question in the study of coevolution is the tempo and mode of evolution of the interacting partners. Is the association an ancient one, reflecting a long and intimate interaction between the two organisms, or is it a recent event due perhaps to a parasite colonising a new host? What is the relative rate of evolution between host and parasite? Answering these questions requires the compari...

Cospeciation generally increases the similarity between host and parasite phylogenies. Incongruence between host and parasite phylogenies has previously been explained in terms of host switching, sorting, and duplication events. Here, we describe an additional process, failure of the parasite to speciate in response to host speciation, that may be important in some host-parasite systems. Failur...

The idea that phytopathogenic fungi associated with tree-killing bark beetles are critical for overwhelming tree defenses and incurring host tree mortality, herein called the classic paradigm (CP), has driven research on bark beetle-fungus symbiosis for decades. It has also strongly influenced our views of bark beetle ecology. We discuss fundamental flaws in the CP, including the lack of consis...

itself by the third growing season following attack. Therefore, it is critical to evaluate trees for past attacks when manipulating stand density and remove tre s with defects in the process. Weevil attack causes reduced height increment for two growing seasons, reducing potential height growth by approximately one third and one fifth in the year of attack and the year following attack, respect...

we study the limiting distribution of the degree of a given node in a scaled attachment random recursive tree, a generalized random recursive tree, which is introduced by devroye et. al (2011). in a scaled attachment random recursive tree, every node $i$ is attached to the node labeled $lfloor ix_i floor$ where $x_0$, $ldots$ , $x_n$ is a sequence of i.i.d. random variables, with support in [0,...

Distinguishing whether pathogens are novel or endemic is critical for controlling emerging infectious diseases, an increasing threat to wildlife and human health. To test the endemic vs. novel pathogen hypothesis, we present a unique analysis of intraspecific host-pathogen phylogenetic concordance of tiger salamanders and an emerging Ranavirus throughout Western North America. There is signific...

The concept of a reconciled tree arose independently in molecular systematics, parasitology, and biogeography as a means of describing "historical associations." Examples of historical associations include genes and organisms, host and parasitic organisms, and organisms and areas. A reconciled tree combines the tree for a host and its associate into a single summary of the historical associati...

Both the quality and spatial configuration of a habitat can affect the distribution of its inhabitants. However, few studies have directly compared the relative effects of the two. In this paper, we focus on spatial patterns in the distribution of an oak-specific moth, Tischeria ekebladella. At the landscape level, the species was more often present on well-connected trees than on isolated tree...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS A possible role of host tree identity in the structuring of vascular epiphyte communities has attracted scientific attention for decades. Specifically, it has been suggested that each host tree species has a specific subset of the local species pool according to its own set of properties, e.g. physicochemical characteristics of the bark, tree architecture, or leaf phenology ...

The sudden appearance and potential lethality of severe acute respiratory syndrome associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in humans has focused attention on understanding its origins. Here, we assess phylogenetic relationships for the SARS-CoV lineage as well as the history of host-species shifts for SARS-CoV and other coronaviruses. We used a Bayesian phylogenetic inference approach with sliding wi...