%0 Journal Article %A Nørgaard, Louise Solveig %A L. Phillips, Ben %A Hall, Matthew D. %D 2019 %T Supplementary material from Can pathogens optimize both transmission and dispersal by exploiting sexual dimorphism in their hosts? %U https://rs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Supplementary_material_from_Can_pathogens_optimize_both_transmission_and_dispersal_by_exploiting_sexual_dimorphism_in_their_hosts_/8246168 %R 10.6084/m9.figshare.8246168.v1 %2 https://rs.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/15374507 %K host–parasite %K trade-off %K virulence %K meta-populations %K range expansion %K Daphnia magna %K Pasteuria ramosa %X Pathogens often rely on their host for dispersal. Yet, maximizing fitness via replication can cause damage to the host and an associated reduction in host movement, incurring a trade-off between transmission and dispersal. Here, we test the idea that pathogens might mitigate this trade-off between reproductive fitness and dispersal by taking advantage of sexual dimorphism in their host; tailoring responses separately to males and females. Using experimental populations of Daphnia magna and its bacterial pathogen Pasteuria ramosa as a test-case, we find evidence that this pathogen can use male hosts as a dispersal vector, and the larger females as high-quality resource patches for optimized production of transmission spores. As sexual dimorphism in dispersal and body size is widespread across the animal kingdom, this differential exploitation of the sexes by a pathogen might be an unappreciated phenomenon, possibly evolved in various systems. %I The Royal Society