Microbial protection against infection: an evolutionary perspective

Kayla King

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zX2rQOLZTkC_Y1jrXQYdFQ

University of Oxford, UK

kayla.king@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Many animal and plant species harbour microbes in their microbiota that protect them from parasite infection. These ‘protective microbes’ can be a significant component of host defence. Using experimental evolution of a novel, tripartite interaction, my group has demonstrated that a costly bacterium living in worms can rapidly evolve to defend their animal hosts against infection by virulent parasites, thus crossing the parasitism-mutualism continuum. We also show that these protective microbes can drive major changes in host tolerance, parasite virulence and coevolutionary dynamics. Our results indicate that the host microbiome is important in shaping infection outcomes, now and over evolutionary time.

Recent publications:        
 

Kloock, A., Bonsall, M.B., King, K.C. 2020. Evolution and maintenance of microbe-mediated protection under occasional pathogen attack. Ecology and Evolution. Early view.
 

Dahan, D., Preston, G., Sealey, J., King, K.C. 2020. The impact of a novel defensive symbiosis on the nematode host microbiome. BMC Microbiology 20, 159.
 

Hall, A., Ashby, B., Bascompte, J., King, K.C. 2020. Measuring coevolutionary dynamics in species rich communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 35, 539-550.