Influence of (host) internal environment on the host-parasite interactions

From EESwiki

Keywords: environment, host-parasite co-evolution, Red Queen.

Introduction: One of the assumptions of host-parasite coevolutionary cycles is genetic specificity for infection (meaning that “who infects whom?” is determined by genetic architecture of both players, i.e. each host has a unique self-nonself ability to detect and to fight parasites). The outcome of infection was thought to be fixed; however, there are a few recent studies reporting that host-parasite specificity can be additionally altered by environmental conditions, e.g. temperature or food ability. We will focus on internal (host) environment (age and gender), and test if infection outcome varies among these environments.

Methods: laboratory experiment. Learnt skills: designing experiment, animal culturing, statistical analyses, scientific presentation and writing.