Does sex matter? The impact of sex differences on pathogen evolution

性别重要吗？

• 批准号: DE150100327
• 负责人: A/Prof Matthew Hall
• 金额: $ 26.33万
• 依托单位: Monash University
• 依托单位国家: 澳大利亚
• 项目类别: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 澳大利亚
• 起止时间: 2015-02-01 至 2018-02-05
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://dataportal.arc.gov.au/RGS/Web/Grants/DE150100327
• 关键词: Does; sex; matter; impact; differences

Males and females experience the burden of infection differently. Males are typically thought of as the 'sicker sex', favouring investment in costly sexual displays, at the expense of immune function. But what does this mean for the pathogen? Each sex presents a unique set of challenges that an invading organism must overcome; yet the impact of these differences on pathogen evolution has been surprisingly overlooked. This project aims to unravel how sex-specific challenges influence the outcome of pathogen evolution. This work will show how infection in males or females can alter the evolutionary potential of disease, and will ask whether same-sex populations could ever lead to the evolution of new pathogen strains and virulence genes.

男性和女性对感染负担的感受不同。男性通常被认为是“病态的性别”，喜欢在昂贵的性展示上投资，而牺牲免疫功能。但这对病原体意味着什么呢？每一种性别都有入侵生物必须克服的独特挑战；然而，令人惊讶的是，这些差异对病原体进化的影响却被忽视了。该项目旨在揭示性别特异性挑战如何影响病原体进化的结果。这项工作将显示男性或女性的感染如何改变疾病的进化潜力，并将询问同性群体是否会导致新的病原体菌株和毒力基因的进化。