Building pyramids against the evolutionary emergence of pathogens.

Proc Biol Sci

Département de biochimie, de microbiologie et de bio-informatique, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Université Laval, Quebec city, Canada G1V0A6.

Published: March 2024

Mutations allowing pathogens to escape host immunity promote the spread of infectious diseases in heterogeneous host populations and can lead to major epidemics. Understanding the conditions that slow down this evolution is key for the development of durable control strategies against pathogens. Here, we use theory and experiments to compare the efficacy of three strategies for the deployment of resistance: (i) a strategy where the host population contains two single-resistant genotypes, (ii) a strategy where the host carries a double-resistant genotype, (iii) a strategy where the host population is a mix of a single-resistant genotype and a double-resistant genotype. First, we use evolutionary epidemiology theory to clarify the interplay between demographic stochasticity and evolutionary dynamics to show that the strategy always yields lower probability of evolutionary emergence. Second, we test experimentally these predictions with the introduction of bacteriophages into bacterial populations where we manipulated the diversity and the depth of immunity using a Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-CRISPR associated (CRISPR-Cas) system. These biological assays confirm that pyramiding multiple defences into the same host genotype and avoiding combination with single-defence genotypes is a robust way to reduce pathogen evolutionary emergence. The experimental validation of these theoretical recommendations has practical implications in various areas, including for the optimal deployment of resistance varieties in agriculture and for the design of durable vaccination strategies.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10932699PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1529DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

evolutionary emergence
12
strategy host
12
deployment resistance
8
host population
8
double-resistant genotype
8
host
6
evolutionary
5
building pyramids
4
pyramids evolutionary
4
emergence pathogens
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!