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- According to the avirulence hypothesis put forward by Theobald Smith (Smith 1904), virulence is expected to decrease to zero in the course of evolution. It is not in the interest of a pathogen to harm or kill its host, only to replicate itself. The death of the host terminates the infectious stage of the pathogen, thus ending transmission.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10066022/Do pathogens always evolve to be less virulent? The virulence ...
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Should pathogens evolve to be less virulent?
Do all pathogens evolve towards higher transmissibility and lower virulence?
Why do pathogens evolve to improve virulence?
When it comes to contemplating the future survival chances of hosts, conventional wisdom is often invoked that a pathogen will become less virulent (less lethal) as it evolves. This expectation stems from two model results and a selective view on current pathogens.
- 10.1007/s42977-023-00159-2
- 2023 Mar
- Biol Futur. 2023 Mar 31 : 1-12.
Mar 31, 2023 · Formerly, it was theorized that pathogens should always evolve to be less virulent. As observations were not in line with this theoretical outcome, new theories emerged, chief among them the transmission–virulence trade-off hypotheses, which predicts an intermediate level of virulence as the endpoint of evolution.
Feb 7, 2024 · A new variant will inevitably appear to be less virulent if it arrives within a population which has already encountered another variant of the same pathogen or possesses a significant level of protection against severe disease due to previous exposure to another related species.
Oct 10, 2018 · Will a virus become more or less virulent in a new host? What level of virulence is optimized by natural selection and why?
- Jemma L. Geoghegan, Edward C. Holmes
- 2018
Jul 19, 2023 · … reducing virulence does not always increase transmissibility; instead, maximum transmissibility in often associated with an intermediate “optimum” level of virulence. Pathogen variants can avoid competition by differentiating at targets of immunity or by consuming different resources.
- Sunetra Gupta
- EMBO Rep. 2023 Aug; 24(8): e57611.
- 10.15252/embr.202357611
- 2023/08
Jul 19, 2023 · It is thus widely accepted now (Geoghegan & Holmes, 2018) that pathogens will evolve to optimise virulence rather than minimising the likelihood of killing the host.
A basic framework for pathogen evolution in the context of antigenic diversity. The evolution of virulence within a pathogen population has to be understood in the context of how its genotype maps onto its phenotype. We can conceptu-alize each individual pathogen as containing elements which determine its. 2024 The Authors.
