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

病原体在野生动物、农业和人类的健康、福利和生存中发挥着重要作用。然而，直到最近，人们才发现病原体变化的速度有多快，它们迅速产生耐药性，适应新的宿主，并变得更具（或更弱）毒性。这些变化是可以预测的。通过了解对病原体有益的特征（如繁殖和传播）如何与潜在的代价高昂的特征（如伤害宿主）联系在一起，我们可能能够解释病原体在某些生态条件下如何变化。拟议的研究将首先研究复制、传播和毒性之间的关系，使用一种致命的蝾螈病毒作为模型系统。然后，利用这些性状之间的关系，它将评估这种病毒如何在有利于或抑制传播的条件下改变其毒力水平。了解毒性如何以及为什么会随时间变化，可以使流行病变得可预测，并可能更容易控制。

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.