Thursday, August 5, 2010 - 3:20 PMOOS 46-6: Host defence and the generation of diversity: Specificity, resistance and tolerance
Mike Boots, University of Sheffield
Background/Question/Methods
There is considerable diversity in host defence and parasite infectivity and virulence in nature. How important are ecological feedbacks to the generation and maintenance of this variation? In particular what characteristics of the infection process and what types of defence are likely to lead to diversity? Here I present a series of theoretical models that examine when ecological feedbacks are likely to lead to diversity. The approach is modern evolutionary game theory and simulations. We use recent advances in adaptive dynamics to build fully dynamical coevolutionary models.
Results/Conclusions
Our results show that ecological feedbacks are critical to the generation of diversity in host parasite interactions. The level of defence impacts the prevalence of disease and therefore the selective pressure. The nature of the defence, whether avoidance, recovery, control, mortality tolerance or sterility tolerance is critical to the level of diversity that occurs. Fundamentally, the detail of the infection process is critical in the generation of diversity in both evolutionary and coevolutionary dynamics.
There is considerable diversity in host defence and parasite infectivity and virulence in nature. How important are ecological feedbacks to the generation and maintenance of this variation? In particular what characteristics of the infection process and what types of defence are likely to lead to diversity? Here I present a series of theoretical models that examine when ecological feedbacks are likely to lead to diversity. The approach is modern evolutionary game theory and simulations. We use recent advances in adaptive dynamics to build fully dynamical coevolutionary models.
Results/Conclusions
Our results show that ecological feedbacks are critical to the generation of diversity in host parasite interactions. The level of defence impacts the prevalence of disease and therefore the selective pressure. The nature of the defence, whether avoidance, recovery, control, mortality tolerance or sterility tolerance is critical to the level of diversity that occurs. Fundamentally, the detail of the infection process is critical in the generation of diversity in both evolutionary and coevolutionary dynamics.