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To what extent are parasite virulence and host resistance environmentally determined?
If virulence and resistance are largely determined by environmental conditions, especially if there are marked GxE interactions, then response to selection will be weak or very hard to predict. We are looking at the condition-dependence of these traits in a variety of systems.
Group members involved: Simon Blanford
Collaborators: Andrea Graham, Judi
Allen, Tom Little
- Daphnia bacteria. Using the sterilising bacteria P. ramosa of Daphnia magna, we are looking at the effects of temperature, spore dose, maternal condition and resource availability on clone differences in infectivity and virulence. A very large environmental component may explain why parasite-induced sterilisation fails to select for increased host resistance, even though there is very considerable differences in resistance between clones.
- Mosquito-malaria interactions. Here, we are varying such things as frequency of blood feeding, availability of glucose water, quality of blood meal, and temperature, to look at parasite differences in virulence and transmissibilty.
- Coinfections. Although most laboratory infections are of a single parasite (or even a single strain, coinfection is the rule in nature. We are looking at the consequences of different coinfections on disease virulence and transmission, and host resistance. In mice, we are looing at malaria and filaria coninfected mice; in mosquitoes, malaria and fungal infected mice.