Immunogenetic Interactions: Assessing the Capacity of Northern Species to Adapt to Infectious Disease

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Disease dynamics are rapidly being altered by climatic changes, with pathogens colonizing previously inhospitable/inaccessible environments as evidenced by several emerging diseases. My research program is interested in the adaptive potential of species to respond to disease with the overarching objective of predicting and mitigating threats to biodiversity. The current proposal investigates the capacity of species to adapt to disease by performing comprehensive scans of genetic variation associated with an immune response. Specifically, I aim to answer the following questions:1) can immune gene variation be associated with local adaptation to disease?2) are there constraints on the capacity for species to locally adapt to disease?3) can local adaptation to disease occur in the absence genetic variation?My study systems include northern mammalian populations to assess genetic responses to emerging diseases in species thought to have a low capacity for local adaptation. These systems include Arctic rabies in foxes, White Nose fungus that has decimated bat populations across eastern North America, and a newly discovered, and devastating bacterial disease in muskox populations that are undergoing precipitous declines. The impact of this work includes clarifying the potential for local adaptation in northern species exposed to emerging diseases. Thus, my research will enhance and guide effective and targeted management actions aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of infectious diseases on human and wildlife health, biodiversity and food security. My research also takes an innovative, multi-pronged approach to acquiring and assessing genetic variation using cutting-edge genomic technologies to further our understanding of how species' genomes interact with with their environments. This approach has the potential to transform how we assess genetic variation from a large number of genes from a large number of individuals, moving wildlife disease studies from correlative to causative genetic relationships with disease outcome and local adaptation. Overall, my research will generate empirical data that set the basis for predictive models to enhance our ability to anticipate epizootic disease spread and impacts under different climatic scenarios.