Dissertation Research: A Pollinator Mediated Plant- Pathogen Interaction

沿着发现的开花植物白蝇子草， 感染了由真菌引起的寄生虫病。 除了使植物不育之外，这种疾病还导致 雄性和雌性植株都能产生带有花药囊的花 充满了真菌的孢子 授粉的昆虫 健康的白蝇子草也访问患病的花朵，从而充当 这种疾病的载体。 这项研究试图说明， 昆虫传粉者/媒介的行为影响 白蝇子草与真菌的植物-病原菌互作 使用结合实地观察的方法， 实验和数学建模。 没有关于植物-病媒-病原体相互作用的研究 在建模中包括了向量的行为成分， 系统的动力学。 这项研究中， 也是植物的授粉者，是开始 媒介生物行为对植物病原菌影响研究 互动 大量的文献对影响的 传粉者行为对植物种群动态的影响 在这种植物-传粉者/媒介-病原体中建立模型 互动 这项研究的结果将是感兴趣的， 研究植物-病媒-病原体系统的流行病学家 进化生态学家研究的是 个体行为对种群和群落动态的影响。

Silene alba, a flowering plant found along roadsides, can become infected with a parasitic disease, caused by a fungus. In addition to rendering the plants sterile, this disease causes both male and female plants to produce flowers with anther sacs filled with spores of the fungus. The insects which pollinate healthy Silene alba also visit diseased flowers, thus acting as vectors of this disease. This study attempts to show how the behavior of the insect pollinator/vector influences the plant-pathogen interaction between Silene alba and the fungus by using an approach which combines field observations, experimentation, and mathematical modeling. No studies of plant-vector-pathogen interactions have included the behavioral component of the vector in modeling the dynamics of the system. This study in which the disease vector is also the pollinator of the plant is an ideal place to begin an investigation of how vector behavior affects a plant-pathogen interaction. The voluminous literature on the effect of pollinator behavior on plant population dynamics can be drawn upon to develop models in this plant-pollinator/vector-pathogen interaction. The results of this study will be of interest to epidemioligists working in plant-vector-pathogen systems as well as to evolutionary ecologists working on the effects of individual behavior on population and community dynamics.