Abstract:
Host-parasite co-evolution is a key component of the Red Queen Hypothesis
(RQH). The RQH currently being one of the main hypotheses describing the evolution of
sex and recombination. However, most analyses in this area have either ignored parasite
transmission or included it either with mean field or simple frequency based models.
Moreover models have rarely addressed the issue of male haploid species. We here use
agent based models to qualify the interactions between host- and parasite-based transmission
parameters and virulence comparing diploid with male-haploid species. We found
diploid hosts to have a higher fitness under the inverse matching allele mode compared to
male haplodiploid hosts which in turn have a higher fitness under the matching allele
model . Selection for recombination was rare but whenever selection for recombination
was evident (\6.6 %), the resulting recombination rates were both consistently higher and
more frequent in male haploids.
