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Gandon S, van Baalen M, Jansen VA. The evolution of parasite virulence, superinfection, and host resistance. Am Nat. 2002;159(6):658-69doi: 10.1086/339993.
Gandon, S., van Baalen, M., & Jansen, V. A. (2002). The evolution of parasite virulence, superinfection, and host resistance. The American naturalist, 159(6), 658-69. https://doi.org/10.1086/339993
Gandon, Sylvain, et al. "The evolution of parasite virulence, superinfection, and host resistance." The American naturalist vol. 159,6 (2002): 658-69. doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/339993
Gandon S, van Baalen M, Jansen VA. The evolution of parasite virulence, superinfection, and host resistance. Am Nat. 2002 Jun;159(6):658-69. doi: 10.1086/339993. PMID: 18707388.
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Am Nat. 2002 Jun;159(6):658-69. doi: 10.1086/339993.

The evolution of parasite virulence, superinfection, and host resistance.

The American naturalist

Sylvain Gandon, Minus van Baalen, Vincent A A Jansen

Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Unité Mixte de Recherche 7625, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Bâtiment A, septième étage, case 237, 7 quai St. Bernard, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France.

PMID: 18707388 DOI: 10.1086/339993

Abstract

We analyze the evolutionary consequences of host resistance (the ability to decrease the probability of being infected by parasites) for the evolution of parasite virulence (the deleterious effect of a parasite on its host). When only single infections occur, host resistance does not affect the evolution of parasite virulence. However, when superinfections occur, resistance tends to decrease the evolutionarily stable (ES) level of parasite virulence. We first study a simple model in which the host does not coevolve with the parasite (i.e., the frequency of resistant hosts is independent of the parasite). We show that a higher proportion of resistant host decreases the ES level of parasite virulence. Higher levels of the efficiency of host resistance, however, do not always decrease the ES parasite virulence. The implications of these results for virulence management (evolutionary consequences of public health policies) are discussed. Second, we analyze the case where host resistance is allowed to coevolve with parasite virulence using the classical gene-for-gene (GFG) model of host-parasite interaction. It is shown that GFG coevolution leads to lower parasite virulence (in comparison with a fully susceptible host population). The model clarifies and relates the different components of the cost of parasitism: infectivity (ability to infect the host) and virulence (deleterious effect) in an evolutionary perspective.

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