Virulence evolution and the trade‐off hypothesis: history, current state of affairs and the future
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 19 January 2009
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Evolutionary Biology
- Vol. 22 (2), 245-259
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01658.x
Abstract
It has been more than two decades since the formulation of the so-called ‘trade-off’ hypothesis as an alternative to the then commonly accepted idea that parasites should always evolve towards avirulence (the ‘avirulence hypothesis’). The trade-off hypothesis states that virulence is an unavoidable consequence of parasite transmission; however, since the 1990s, this hypothesis has been increasingly challenged. We discuss the history of the study of virulence evolution and the development of theories towards the trade-off hypothesis in order to illustrate the context of the debate. We investigate the arguments raised against the trade-off hypothesis and argue that trade-offs exist, but may not be of the simple form that is usually assumed, involving other mechanisms (and life-history traits) than those originally considered. Many processes such as pathogen adaptation to within-host competition, interactions with the immune system and shifting transmission routes, will all be interrelated making sweeping evolutionary predictions harder to obtain. We argue that this is the heart of the current debate in the field and while species-specific models may be better predictive tools, the trade-off hypothesis and its basic extensions are necessary to assess the qualitative impacts of virulence management strategies.Keywords
This publication has 119 references indexed in Scilit:
- Parasite immune evasion: a momentous molecular warTrends in Ecology & Evolution, 2008
- Virulence-transmission trade-offs and population divergence in virulence in a naturally occurring butterfly parasiteProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
- Mechanisms of pathogenesis and the evolution of parasite virulenceJournal of Evolutionary Biology, 2008
- Experimental manipulation of immune-mediated disease and its fitness costs for rodent malaria parasitesBMC Ecology and Evolution, 2008
- Variation in HIV-1 set-point viral load: Epidemiological analysis and an evolutionary hypothesisProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
- Evolution of parasite virulence when host responses cause diseaseProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2007
- Transmission-blocking activity induced by malaria vaccine candidates Pfs25/Pvs25 is a direct and predictable function of antibody titerMalaria Journal, 2007
- Genotype-specific interactions and the trade-off between host and parasite fitnessBMC Ecology and Evolution, 2007
- Playing by Different Rules: The Evolution of Virulence in Sterilizing PathogensThe American Naturalist, 2002
- The genetical evolution of social behaviour. IJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1964