Infection intensity and infectivity of the tick-borne pathogen Borrelia afzelii.
(2012) In Journal of evolutionary biology 25(7). p.1448-1453- Abstract
- The 'trade-off' hypothesis for virulence evolution assumes that between-host transmission rate is a positive and saturating function of pathogen exploitation and virulence, but there are as yet few tests of this assumption, in particular for vector-borne pathogens. Here, I show that the infectivity (probability of transmission) of the tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii from two of its natural rodent hosts (bank vole and yellow-necked mouse) to its main tick vector increases asymptotically with increasing exploitation (measured as bacterial load in skin biopsies). Hence, this result provides support for one of the basic assumptions of the 'trade-off hypothesis'. Moreover, there was no difference in infectivity between bank voles and... (More)
- The 'trade-off' hypothesis for virulence evolution assumes that between-host transmission rate is a positive and saturating function of pathogen exploitation and virulence, but there are as yet few tests of this assumption, in particular for vector-borne pathogens. Here, I show that the infectivity (probability of transmission) of the tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii from two of its natural rodent hosts (bank vole and yellow-necked mouse) to its main tick vector increases asymptotically with increasing exploitation (measured as bacterial load in skin biopsies). Hence, this result provides support for one of the basic assumptions of the 'trade-off hypothesis'. Moreover, there was no difference in infectivity between bank voles and yellow-necked mice despite bacterial loads being on average an order of magnitude higher in bank voles, most likely because ticks took larger blood meals from mice. This shows that interspecific variation in host resistance does not necessarily translate into a difference in infectivity. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2518977
- author
- Råberg, Lars LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2012
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Borrelia, host–parasite interactions, Lyme borreliosis, virulence, zoonotic disease
- in
- Journal of evolutionary biology
- volume
- 25
- issue
- 7
- pages
- 1448 - 1453
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000305130800020
- pmid:22536945
- scopus:84862261016
- pmid:22536945
- ISSN
- 1420-9101
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02515.x
- project
- Borrelia in rodents
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b6c255a6-236e-40f3-a8e5-1d2c9d158a58 (old id 2518977)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:50:19
- date last changed
- 2022-04-04 21:46:02
@article{b6c255a6-236e-40f3-a8e5-1d2c9d158a58,
abstract = {{The 'trade-off' hypothesis for virulence evolution assumes that between-host transmission rate is a positive and saturating function of pathogen exploitation and virulence, but there are as yet few tests of this assumption, in particular for vector-borne pathogens. Here, I show that the infectivity (probability of transmission) of the tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii from two of its natural rodent hosts (bank vole and yellow-necked mouse) to its main tick vector increases asymptotically with increasing exploitation (measured as bacterial load in skin biopsies). Hence, this result provides support for one of the basic assumptions of the 'trade-off hypothesis'. Moreover, there was no difference in infectivity between bank voles and yellow-necked mice despite bacterial loads being on average an order of magnitude higher in bank voles, most likely because ticks took larger blood meals from mice. This shows that interspecific variation in host resistance does not necessarily translate into a difference in infectivity.}},
author = {{Råberg, Lars}},
issn = {{1420-9101}},
keywords = {{Borrelia; host–parasite interactions; Lyme borreliosis; virulence; zoonotic disease}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{7}},
pages = {{1448--1453}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Journal of evolutionary biology}},
title = {{Infection intensity and infectivity of the tick-borne pathogen Borrelia afzelii.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02515.x}},
doi = {{10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02515.x}},
volume = {{25}},
year = {{2012}},
}