Cargando…
Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control
Standard virulence evolution theory assumes that virulence factors are maintained because they aid parasitic exploitation, increasing growth within and/or transmission between hosts. An increasing number of studies now demonstrate that many opportunistic pathogens (OPs) do not conform to these assum...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Trends Journals
2012
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491314/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22564248 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2012.04.005 |
_version_ | 1782248972270698496 |
---|---|
author | Brown, Sam P. Cornforth, Daniel M. Mideo, Nicole |
author_facet | Brown, Sam P. Cornforth, Daniel M. Mideo, Nicole |
author_sort | Brown, Sam P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Standard virulence evolution theory assumes that virulence factors are maintained because they aid parasitic exploitation, increasing growth within and/or transmission between hosts. An increasing number of studies now demonstrate that many opportunistic pathogens (OPs) do not conform to these assumptions, with virulence factors maintained instead because of advantages in non-parasitic contexts. Here we review virulence evolution theory in the context of OPs and highlight the importance of incorporating environments outside a focal virulence site. We illustrate that virulence selection is constrained by correlations between these external and focal settings and pinpoint drivers of key environmental correlations, with a focus on generalist strategies and phenotypic plasticity. We end with a summary of key theoretical and empirical challenges to be met for a fuller understanding of OPs. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3491314 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Elsevier Trends Journals |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-34913142012-12-04 Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control Brown, Sam P. Cornforth, Daniel M. Mideo, Nicole Trends Microbiol Review Standard virulence evolution theory assumes that virulence factors are maintained because they aid parasitic exploitation, increasing growth within and/or transmission between hosts. An increasing number of studies now demonstrate that many opportunistic pathogens (OPs) do not conform to these assumptions, with virulence factors maintained instead because of advantages in non-parasitic contexts. Here we review virulence evolution theory in the context of OPs and highlight the importance of incorporating environments outside a focal virulence site. We illustrate that virulence selection is constrained by correlations between these external and focal settings and pinpoint drivers of key environmental correlations, with a focus on generalist strategies and phenotypic plasticity. We end with a summary of key theoretical and empirical challenges to be met for a fuller understanding of OPs. Elsevier Trends Journals 2012-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3491314/ /pubmed/22564248 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2012.04.005 Text en © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Open Access under CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) license |
spellingShingle | Review Brown, Sam P. Cornforth, Daniel M. Mideo, Nicole Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
title | Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
title_full | Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
title_fullStr | Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
title_full_unstemmed | Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
title_short | Evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
title_sort | evolution of virulence in opportunistic pathogens: generalism, plasticity, and control |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491314/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22564248 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2012.04.005 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT brownsamp evolutionofvirulenceinopportunisticpathogensgeneralismplasticityandcontrol AT cornforthdanielm evolutionofvirulenceinopportunisticpathogensgeneralismplasticityandcontrol AT mideonicole evolutionofvirulenceinopportunisticpathogensgeneralismplasticityandcontrol |