Evolution of virulence in emerging epidemics: from theory to experimental evolution and back.

ABSTRACT: The experimental validation of theoretical predictions is a crucial step in demonstrating the predictive power of a model. While quantitative validations are common in infectious diseases epidemiology, experimental microbiology primarily focuses on the evaluation of a qualitative match between model predictions and experiments. In this study, we develop a method to deepen the quantitative validation process with a polymorphic viral population. We analyse the data from an experiment carried out to monitor the evolution of the temperate bacteriophage λ spreading in continuous cultures of Escherichia coli. This experimental work confirmed the influence of the epidemiological dynamics on the evolution of transmission and virulence of the virus. A variant with larger propensity to

SUBMITTER: Benhamou W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11578488 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature