Pedro Value:The role of host genetics in how sick individuals get and how sick they make others

Pedro Value from the University of Edinburgh Why do individuals vary in how sick they get, and how sick they make others? We take a multi-scale, experimental approach to the study of variation in disease, exploring variation host genes, tissue-level responses to infection, individual level physiological states, life-history and behaviour, and population-level experimental epidemics and evolution. Much of this work builds on the unique strengths of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as model of infection, immunity and behaviour during systemic and chronic infections by either viral and bacterial pathogens. I will present data showing how genetic variation in social aggregation, resistance, disease tolerance, and pathogen shedding combine to produce individual heterogeneities in the spread of infection. Hosted by Lena Wilfert.