Alex Best (University of Sheffield)

When
27 Oct 2021
13:00
Location
Virtual

Title: Modelling the coevolution of hosts and their parasites

Abstract: An important driver of infectious disease dynamics is antagonistic
coevolution between hosts and their parasites. Hosts are selected to defend
themselves from parasites to prevent damage due to infection, while
parasites must infect to complete their life cycles. An important driver of
these selection pressures is the underlying ecology - for example, the more
infection in the population, the greater selection hosts may experience to
invest in costly defence mechanisms. In this talk I will give a broad
overview of modelling the evolution of hosts and their parasites, paying
particular attention to the feedbacks between ecology and evolution. I will
then summarise a few recent projects - the impact of predation on
host-parasite coevolution, modelling evolution in fluctuating environments,
and how hosts may evolve dispersal as a defence mechanism in
spatially-structured populations.

About Alex Best: http://abest.staff.shef.ac.uk/

Access to the streaming link is given to members of the ESMTB mailing list a few days before the talk and again on the same day. Everyone can subscribe.

Recorded talk link: https://youtu.be/_MzUwtbtooE

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