Fitness estimates from experimental infections predict the long-term strain structure of a vector-borne pathogen in the field.

ABSTRACT: The populations of many pathogen species consist of a collection of common and rare strains but the factors underlying this strain-specific variation in frequency are often unknown. Understanding frequency variation among strains is particularly challenging for vector-borne pathogens where the strain-specific fitness depends on the performance in both the vertebrate host and the arthropod vector. Two sympatric multiple-strain tick-borne pathogens, Borrelia afzelii and B. garinii, that use the same tick vector, Ixodes ricinus, but different vertebrate hosts were studied. 454-sequencing of the polymorphic ospC gene was used to characterize the community of Borrelia strains in a local population of I. ricinus ticks over a period of 11 years. Estimates of the reproduction number (R₀

SUBMITTER: Durand J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5431797 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature