Infectious diseases as drivers of evolution: the challenge ahead
Roscoff (Brittany), France, September 6-10, 2014
Deadline for application: May 2, 2014
Chairperson: Manfred MILINSKI
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August Thienemann Strasse 2, D-24306 Ploen, Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 4522 763254 - Fax +49 (0) 4522 763310
Email: milinski@evolbio.mpg.de
Vice-chairperson: Ana RIVERO
MIVEGEC - CNRS UMR 5290, Centre de Recherche IRD, 911 Avenue Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier cedex 5, France
Phone: +33 (0) 4 67 41 63 73 – Fax: +33 (0) 4 67 41 62 99
Email : ana.rivero@montp.cnrs.fr
Virtually no animals and plants would have evolved had they not been forced to reproduce sexually to offset the negative effects of infectious diseases. In a world without infectious diseases, asexual reproduction would, indeed, prevail. However, with asexual reproduction there is no evolutionary improvement, only genetic degeneration through fatal mutation accumulation. Infectious Diseases are indeed drivers of sexual reproduction and thus evolution.
The conference is organized in four sessions:
1. The ever-changing diversity of infectious diseases as a complex challenge for host evolutionary recovery. Infectious diseases are always ahead in the race with their hosts. We will discuss new kinds of genetic devices with potential to create novel virulence mechanisms and their potential for increasing the diversity of pathogens. We will discuss the potential for variation in the expression levels of virulence genes and to what extent such expression levels can be transmitted between generations (epigenetics).
2. Host diversity through standing genetic variation as an evolutionary response to infection. Hosts cannot predict what direction infectious diseases will take in the future. The way out of this dilemma may be the evolution and maintenance of a high standing genetic variation in defence genes. Immunogenes are, indeed, usually highly polymorphic. How can such a polymorphism evolve and be maintained? We will have both theoretical and empirical approaches to solving this puzzle.
3. Phenotypic plasticity as a host’s response to infection – the epigenetic counter-strategy. Host phenotypes are drastically and rapidly altered by the presence of a pathogen. Epigenetic modifications may provide a source of fast-acting, versatile and readily available non-genetic variation that can be directly shaped by the pathogen pressure. However, most fascinating examples of these changes can be the result of a manipulative strategy of the pathogen aimed at maximizing its survival and transmission. Here, too, epigenetic mechanisms may be at play.
4. The Red Queen’s moving equilibrium – is it inevitable? The Red Queen hypothesis predicts a co-evolutionary arms race between hosts and their parasites. To avoid losing the race, hosts have to keep renewing their resistance or tolerance mechanisms, which requires that the genes involved are highly polymorphic. Inversely, infectious diseases have to keep diversifying to avoid detection. Such dynamics may keep the Red Queen running. At the conference there will be contributions that either support or challenge the Red Queen hypothesis.
Invited speakers
(provisional titles)
ALIZON Samuel (Montpellier, France)
Multiple infection and virulence evolution
BOLNICK Daniel (Austin, USA)
Stickleback MHC class II genotype modifies both symbiotic gut microbe community and helminth parasite community composition
BONNEAUD Camille (Exeter, United Kingdom)
Evolution of host resistance and pathogen virulence following an emerging infectious disease outbreak
BOOTS Mike (Exeter, United Kingdom)
Epidemiological drivers of the coevolution of host parasite diversity
BUCKLING Angus (Exeter, United Kingdom)
Viruses as drivers of bacterial evolution over ecological time scales
CHARBONEL Nathalie (Montpellier, France)
Adaptative genomics of bank vole tolerance to Puumala hantavirus in Europe
DAY Troy (Kingston, Canada)
The evolutionary dynamics of drug resistance
DOBSON Andy (Princeton, USA)
Asymmetrical co-evolution of an emerging pathogen: insights from studies at multiple spatial and temporal scales
EBERT Dieter (Basel, Switzerland)
The population genetics of red queen dynamics
EDWARDS Scott (Harvard, USA)
Pathogen evolution and pathogen load in the race between house finches and Mycoplasma gallisepticum
EIZAGUIRRE Christophe (Kiel, Germany)
Host-parasite interaction – a fuel for speciation
GANDON Sylvain (Montpellier, France)
Malaria manipulates mosquitoes
GIRAUD Tatiana (Paris-Sud, France)
Mating types, sexes, sex, no-sex, sex with clones, and mating type chromosomes in fungi
GRAHAM Andrea (Princeton, USA)
The within-host dynamics of optimal defence
GRUNAU Christoph (Perpignan, France)
Darwins pangens and Jollos' Dauermodifikation - myth or reality? Lessons from the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni
GUPTA Sunetra (Oxford, United Kingdom)
The role of epistatic interactions between malaria-protective haemoglobin disorders in determining their epidemiology
KOSKELLA Britt (Exeter, United Kingdom)
Bacteria-phage coevolution within a long-lived host
LAZZARO Brian (Cornell, USA)
Complexity in the function and evolution of insect immunity
McCOY Karen (Montpellier, France)
Evolution of host specialisation and circulation of vector-borne disease agents
MILINSKi Manfred (Ploen, Germany)
Olfactory signalling of immunogenetics for mate choice
MORET Yannick (Dijon, France)
Evolutionary ecology and mechanisms of trans-generational immune priming in insects
REECE Sarah (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Plasticity in parasite phenotypes: evolutionary and ecological implications for disease
RIVERO Ana (Montpellier, France)
More than just flying syringes: evolutionary ecology of Plasmodium-infected mosquitoes
SCHMID-HEMPEL Paul (Zurich, Switzerland)
Do infections drive the evolution of microbiota in social insects?
SCHNEIDER David (Stanford, USA)
Infected hosts take a long view and plan for recovery
SCHULENBURG Hinrich (Kiel, Germany)
Lessons from C. elegans as a model host: fast and complex adaptations
SIVA-JOTHY Mike (Sheffield, United Kingdom)
Symbionts and insect cellular immunity
SORCI Gabriele (Dijon, France)
Immune evasion and the evolution of host defence
VARALDI Julien (Lyon, France)
Infected viruses as key players in host-parasitoid interaction
WEBSTER Joanne (London, United Kingdom)
Schistosome evolution in a changing
Deadline for application: May 2, 2014
Registration fee (including board and lodging)
420 € for PhD students
695 € for other participants
Application for registration
The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should send:
- their curriculum vitae
- the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
- the abstract of their presentation
to the Chairperson of the conference (milinski@evolbio.mpg.de) before the deadline. After it, the organizers will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.