Professional Documents
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– Host-parasite
– Plant- herbivore
– Predator-Prey
– Mutualisms
The main point is that any old interaction, symbiosis, mutualism, etc. is not
synonymous with coevolution. In one sense there has definitely been "evolution
together" but whether this fits our strict definition of coevolution needs to be
determined by careful 1) observation, 2) experimentation and 3)
phylogenetic analysis
The classic analogy is the coevolutionary arms race: a plant has
chemical defenses, an insect evolves the biochemistry to detoxify
these compounds, the plant in turn evolves new defenses that the
insect in turn "needs" to further detoxify.
• Why?
Can the parasite increase virulence and the host increase defences
indefinitely? Can this continue forever?
What about the costs to the parasite and host of increasing virulence
and defences? Will overall fitness of both be affected?
1 High 3
1
4
Grade
107
5
5 Low
time time
Now host responses maintain low viremia: virus increasing viremia just to
reach threshold to maintain transmission
Coevolution of parasites and their hosts
Myxoma virus
• Trade-off between virulence and transmission: highly
virulent forms killed too quickly, reducing chance of
being picked up by vector
R0 = βH
α+µ+b
Parasite virulence can incur costs for parasite and host- if parasites
incur too much suffering on their hosts. Anderson and May:
R0 = βH
α+µ+b
Parasite net reproductive rate (R0) and virulence (α) are inversely
related
If parasite virulence brings no benefit to parasite, there is nothing to
stop virulence from evolving to zero (commensalism) or even a
positive relationship (mutualism). If the parameters were
independent of each other the predictions derived in this equation
would suggest that parasites to become benign.
R0: The basic reproductive rate
• If all parameters were independent, benign
parasites would evolve
Severe infections, hosts may die: What responses have humans developed?
What are the costs for developing an immune response? Does this
depend on the probability of encountering a parasite or the costs of
having a parasite?
Take home message
“ Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do just to stay in one place”