Ecology and evolution of multiple transmission modes: anther-smut disease

本研究将探讨多种疾病传播方式的流行病学意义和演变。通过模拟和理论分析，将开发描述空间扩展种群中媒介和空中传播的一般战略模型，同时开发适用于花药黑穗病的模型，这是一个研究自然种群疾病生态学的模型系统。自适应动力学理论将用于研究传播模式如何演变，以响应不同的生活史和流行病学特征。为了将这一理论应用于现实世界的系统，本研究将测量自然界中空中和媒介传播的贡献，研究宿主种群中传播模式的遗传变异和共变，并在存在密度和疾病流行率长期数据的自然种群中寻找传播模式的信号。这种疾病系统具有良好的生态学和遗传学特征，是一种高度可处理的模型系统，允许对自然种群中的传播模式进行大规模和定向的实验研究。一个关键的进步是考虑宿主空间分布的传输函数的公式，包括用于研究矢量传输的感知核的概念。此外，这项工作通过研究传播模式本身的进化，而不是传播模式对其他宿主和病原体特征（如毒力）的进化后果，开辟了新的领域。本研究强调，传播方式的进化是一个涉及宿主和病原体特征以及生物和非生物环境背景相互作用的共同进化过程。

This research will examine the epidemiological implications and evolution of multiple modes of disease transmission. Using simulation and theoretical analysis, general strategic models describing vector and aerial transmission in spatially extended populations will be developed concurrently with models applicable to anther-smut disease, a model system for studies of disease ecology in natural populations. Adaptive dynamics theory will be used to investigate how transmission mode evolves in response to different life history and epidemiological features. To apply that theory to a real-world system, this research will measure contributions of aerial and vector transmission in nature, study genetic variation and covariation in transmission mode in host populations, and look for the signals of transmission mode in natural populations where there is long-standing data on density and disease prevalence. This disease system is well characterized ecologically and genetically, and is a highly tractable model system allowing large and directed experimental studies of transmission modes in natural populations. A key advance is the formulation of transmission functions to take into account host spatial distributions, including the concept of a perception kernel to study vector transmission. Furthermore, the work breaks new ground by investigating the evolution of transmission mode itself, rather than the evolutionary consequences of transmission mode for other host and pathogen traits such as virulence. This study emphasizes that the evolution of transmission mode is a co-evolutionary process involving the interplay of both host and pathogen traits, as well as the biotic and abiotic environmental context.