Varying conjunctival immune response adaptations of house finch populations to a rapidly evolving bacterial pathogen.

ABSTRACT: Pathogen adaptations during host-pathogen co-evolution can cause the host balance between immunity and immunopathology to rapidly shift. However, little is known in natural disease systems about the immunological pathways optimised through the trade-off between immunity and self-damage. The evolutionary interaction between the conjunctival bacterial infection Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and its avian host, the house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), can provide insights into such adaptations in immune regulation. Here we use experimental infections to reveal immune variation in conjunctival tissue for house finches captured from four distinct populations differing in the length of their co-evolutionary histories with MG and their disease tolerance (defined as disease severity p

SUBMITTER: Kuttiyarthu Veetil N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10869556 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature