Generalism and the evolution of parasite virulence

• Published in: Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) Vol. 28; no. 10; pp. 592 - 596
• Main Authors: Leggett, Helen C., Buckling, Angus, Long, Gráinne H., Boots, Mike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; emerging diseases; evolution; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; host range; hosts; life history; parasites; Parasites - pathogenicity; Parasitic Diseases - microbiology; Parasitic Diseases - parasitology; Parasitic Diseases - transmission; prediction; Virulence; Parasite; Virulence
• ISSN: 0169-5347; 1872-8383
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2013.07.002

•Support for the virulence trade-off theory is good but not perfect.•Parasites differ in their degree of host generalism.•Generalism is likely to impact virulence in four ways.•Incorporation of infectivity data may lead to better predictions of evolved virulence.
The evolution of parasite-imposed host harm (virulence) will be affected by numerous factors, not least the range of hosts that parasites can infect. Here, we consider four ways that parasite host range (generalism) might directly affect observed levels of parasite virulence: costs of generalism, multiplicity of infection, maladaptive virulence, and host availability. Integrating parasite infectivity range with life-history evolution will generate novel general hypotheses for the evolutionary ecology of virulence, as well as explicit predictions about the virulence of emerging diseases resulting from host shifts.