Integrating life history and cross-immunity into the evolutionary dynamics of pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Models for the diversity and evolution of pathogens have branched into two main directions: the adaptive dynamics of quantitative life-history traits (notably virulence) and the maintenance and invasion of multiple, antigenically diverse strains that interact with the host's immune memory. In a first attempt to reconcile these two approaches, we developed a simple modelling framework where two strains of pathogens, defined by a pair of life-history traits (infectious period and infectivity), interfere through a given level of cross-immunity. We used whooping cough as a potential example, but the framework proposed here could be applied to other acute infectious diseases. Specifically, we analysed the effects of these parameters on the invasion dynamics of one strain into a population, wher

SUBMITTER: Restif O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560197 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature