Dissertation Research: Population and Genetic Dynamics of the Anther-smut Ustilago violacea and its Plant Host Silene alba

广义宿主/病原体模型表明，病原体在理论上可以调节宿主种群动态，并具有进化影响。与此同时，在人类流行病学或农业作物系统之外，很少或根本没有开展工作来衡量宿主与病原体之间的生态或进化关系。本研究的主要目标是：1)建立与植物寄主/病原体系统相关的种群动态模型；2)扩展该理论以研究遗传对种群动态的影响；3)建立探索病原体对寄主生活史的进化影响的模型；4)实验确定密度依赖对沉默植物种群的影响。5)建立长期的实验群体，使模型假设得到检验，从而为未来的理论发展提供指导。

Generalized host/pathogen models have shown that pathogens can theoretically regulate host population dynamics, as well as have evolutionary impacts. At the same time, there has been little or no work done to measure ecological or evolutionary relationships between hosts and pathogens outside of human epidemiology or agricultural crop systems. The major goals of this proposal are 1) to develop population dynamic models relevant to plant host/pathogen systems, 2) to extend the theory to examine the effects of genetics on population dynamics, 3) to develop models that explore evolutionary impacts of pathogens on host life histories, 4) to experimentally determine the effects of density dependence in Silene populations, and 5) to establish long term experimental populations that allow model assumptions to be tested, thus acting as a guide to future theory development.