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Special Issue: Infectious Disease

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Closed

Infectious disease is ubiquitous among ecosystems. Pathogen and parasite populations are known to exert selection on populations of their hosts, and vice versa, driving evolutionary and coevolutionary change. Interactions between a host and a particular pathogen or parasite are, however, just one of a great many biotic and abiotic ecological interactions in the wider ecosystem, and it is well known that ecological and evolutionary shifts are inherently linked.

Over fifty years ago, G. E. Hutchinson considered interplay between ecological and evolutionary phenomena when he coined the metaphor of the ecological theatre and the evolutionary play. Since then, we have developed considerable insight into the evolution and ecology of infectious disease, from both tightly controlled experiments that come at the cost of ecological realism and ecologically realistic studies that often come at the cost of experimental control. But we are still left with the question: to what extent does ecology and (co)evolution interact to shape disease over space and time in natural communities?

In this special issue we sought contributions that examine the relationship between the ecological theatre and evolutionary play in ecologically realistic disease systems.

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Editors

  • Stuart Auld Stuart Auld  &

    Stuart Auld

    An evolutionary ecologist interested in disease at Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Dr. Auld's current work focuses on how environmental variation affects the disease cycle - epidemiological and coevolutionary dynamics both within and across epidemics - and uses a naturally coevolving freshwater crustacean and its sterilising bacterial parasite (Daphnia magna and Pasteuria ramosa).

  • Jessica L. Hite Jessica L. Hite

    Jessica L. Hite

    Dr. Hite's research integrates data and mathematical tools to better understand how physiology and immune functions jointly shape how hosts respond to and cope with infections and these processes within-hosts scale-up to influence disease dynamics and pathogen evolution. Current projects focus on extending research from the lab to the field using a combination of detailed lab assays with fruit flies and bacteria and livestock systems spanning a range of grazing and farming practices.

Articles (12 in this collection)