Incomplete immunity in a natural animal-microbiota interaction selects for higher pathogen virulence.

ABSTRACT: Incomplete immunity in recovered hosts is predicted to favor more virulent pathogens upon re-infection in the population.¹ The microbiota colonizing animals can generate a similarly long-lasting, partial immune response, allowing for infection but dampened disease severity.² We tracked the evolutionary trajectories of a widespread pathogen (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), experimentally passaged through populations of nematodes immune-primed by a natural microbiota member (P. berkeleyensis). This bacterium can induce genes regulated by a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway effective at conferring protection against pathogen-induced death despite infection.³ Across host populations, this incomplete immunity selected for pathogens more than twi

SUBMITTER: Hoang KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10962313 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature