DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Evolution of Parasite Virulence: Experimental Tests using a Lethal Salamander Virus

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Pathogens play an important role in the health, welfare, and survival of wildlife, agricultural, and human populations. Only recently, however, has it become evident how quickly pathogens can change, rapidly developing drug resistance, adapting to new hosts, and becoming more (and less) virulent. These changes may be predictable. By understanding how traits beneficial to a pathogen (e.g., reproduction and transmission) are linked to potentially costly traits (like harming one's host), we may be able to explain how pathogens change under certain ecological conditions. The proposed research will first examine the relationship between replication, transmission, and virulence, using a lethal virus of salamanders as a model system. Then, using these relationships among traits, it will assess how this virus changes its level of virulence under conditions favoring or inhibiting transmission. Understanding how and why virulence changes over time can make epidemics predictable, and potentially more easily controlled.