Variation in within-host replication kinetics among virus genotypes provides evidence of specialist and generalist infection strategies across three salmonid host species.

ABSTRACT: Theory of the evolution of pathogen specialization suggests that a specialist pathogen gains high fitness in one host, but this comes with fitness loss in other hosts. By contrast, a generalist pathogen does not achieve high fitness in any host, but gains ecological fitness by exploiting different hosts, and has higher fitness than specialists in nonspecialized hosts. As a result, specialist pathogens are predicted to have greater variation in fitness across hosts, and generalists would have lower fitness variation across hosts. We test these hypotheses by measuring pathogen replicative fitness as within-host viral loads from the onset of infection to the beginning of virus clearance, using the rhabdovirus infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) in salmonid fish. Based on field prev

SUBMITTER: Paez DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9463992 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature