Taking Stock: Relating Theory to Experiment

Sabelis, Maurice W.; Metz, J.A.J.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511525728.035

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 121 publications

(102 reference statements)

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“…Evidence from both empirical and modeling studies suggests that during this time after myxoma introduction, the virus evolved to its evolutionary stable strategy such that it killed its host at a rate to maximize its between‐host fitness (Anderson and May 1982a; Dwyer et al 1990; Fenner and Fantini 1999). However, the trajectory of virulence evolution may be complex and have multiple selection drivers (Sabelis and Metz 2002). Relevant to this study, there have been virulence evolution reported as a result of vaccination (Gandon and Day 2008; Read and Mackinnon 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vaccination and Reduced Cohort Duration Can Drive Virulence Evolution: Marek’s Disease Virus and Industrialized Agriculture

et al. 2012

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vaccination and Reduced Cohort Duration Can Drive Virulence Evolution: Marek’s Disease Virus and Industrialized Agriculture

et al. 2012

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“…One needs to be very cautious with the interpretation of such data because of correlation–causation issues. For instance, Sabelis & Metz (2002) show that at least seven different hypotheses can explain observed patterns of virulence evolution in the well‐known rabbit‐myxoma virus system in Australia. One also needs to be careful when estimating transmission and especially virulence in parasites that have recently crossed a species barrier because the parasite is ill adapted to the host and vice versa. The comparative approach.…”

Section: Box 2: Collecting Data To Support the Trade‐off Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Virulence evolution and the trade‐off hypothesis: history, current state of affairs and the future

Alizon

Hurford

Mideo

et al. 2009

J of Evolutionary Biology

751

873

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How and why parasite virulence (terms in bold font are in the Glossary) evolves are arguably some of the most important questions addressed by evolutionary biologists. The 1990s saw rich and abounding research in this area, mostly based on the 'trade-off hypothesis' (Anderson & May, 1982), which states that virulence is an unavoidable consequence of parasite transmission (see Box 1). In this review, we first briefly outline the seldomdiscussed history of virulence evolution. Then, we expose the current debate in the field, which can be summarized as a challenge to the trade-off hypothesis. Finally, to answer this challenge, we discuss the advances made in the past decade and we argue that, in the light of these advances, we need not abandon the trade-off model. Instead, we argue that these new insights ought to be incorporated into the current theory and we identify promising future directions. A history of virulenceMany, if not most, of the recent theories that attempt to explain how parasites evolve assume that there is a link between virulence and transmission, the so-called 'virulence-transmission trade-off'. However, this idea has become the focus of intense debate. To better understand the issues of current debates in the field, one should be aware that virulence evolution was studied long before the trade-off hypothesis was formulated. Our purpose here is not to present an exhaustive review of the history of the study of infectious diseases but to give a mere glimpse of the richness and originality of this field that has linked many disciplines, from ecology to molecular biology.The notion that virulence is not fixed but evolves can be traced to Pasteur and Koch in the 19th century. AbstractIt has been more than two decades since the formulation of the so-called 'trade-off' hypothesis as an alternative to the then commonly accepted idea that parasites should always evolve towards avirulence (the 'avirulence hypothesis'). The trade-off hypothesis states that virulence is an unavoidable consequence of parasite transmission; however, since the 1990s, this hypothesis has been increasingly challenged. We discuss the history of the study of virulence evolution and the development of theories towards the trade-off hypothesis in order to illustrate the context of the debate. We investigate the arguments raised against the trade-off hypothesis and argue that trade-offs exist, but may not be of the simple form that is usually assumed, involving other mechanisms (and life-history traits) than those originally considered. Many processes such as pathogen adaptation to within-host competition, interactions with the immune system and shifting transmission routes, will all be interrelated making sweeping evolutionary predictions harder to obtain. We argue that this is the heart of the current debate in the field and while species-specific models may be better predictive tools, the trade-off hypothesis and its basic extensions are necessary to assess the qualitative impacts of virulence management strategies.

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“…For instance, there can be differences between the invasion fitness in a naive host population and in a host population already infected by a resident strain of the parasite [38]. Furthermore, the definition does not account for out of equilibrium dynamics [39]. However, this invasion fitness has the advantage of being applicable to most host-parasite systems and enabling confrontation of the experimental data (Box 2).…”

Section: A Fitness-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive virulence evolution: the good old fitness-based approach

Alizon

Michalakis

2015

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

114

139

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Infectious diseases could be expected to evolve towards complete avirulence to their hosts if given enough time. However, this is not the case. Often, virulence is maintained because it is linked to adaptive advantages to the parasite, a situation that is often associated with the hypothesis known as the transmission-virulence trade-off hypothesis. Here, we argue that this hypothesis has three limitations, which are related to how virulence is defined, the possibility of multiple trade-offs, and the difficulty of testing the hypothesis empirically. By adopting a fitness-based approach, where the relation between virulence and the fitness of the parasite throughout its life cycle is directly assessed, it is possible to address these limitations and to determine directly whether virulence is adaptive.

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Taking Stock: Relating Theory to Experiment

Cited by 6 publications

References 121 publications

Vaccination and Reduced Cohort Duration Can Drive Virulence Evolution: Marek’s Disease Virus and Industrialized Agriculture

Vaccination and Reduced Cohort Duration Can Drive Virulence Evolution: Marek’s Disease Virus and Industrialized Agriculture

Virulence evolution and the trade‐off hypothesis: history, current state of affairs and the future

Adaptive virulence evolution: the good old fitness-based approach

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