host-specific

[hohst-spi-sif-ik]

adjective

1. capable of living solely on or in one species of host, as a parasite that infests only chickens.

Word History and Origins

Origin of host-specific¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Their work supports earlier findings, based on DNA markers and crossing experiments which suggested that F. xylarioides is a species complex containing distinct, host-specific populations.

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And one of the most abundant milkweed-visiting aphids, the nonnative oleander aphid, is host-specific, meaning it doesn’t eat other plants.

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“Parasites, particularly the host-specific species, are perhaps the most imperiled group of organisms on Earth,” he says.

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All are host-specific fleas that parasitize one species each.

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If a theoretical possum species were living in four populations—only two of which carried host-specific fleas—and the two flea-carrying populations disappeared, the possum species as a whole could survive.

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