Nature Communications (Jul 2021)

Epigenetic memories and the evolution of infectious diseases

  • David V. McLeod,
  • Geoff Wild,
  • Francisco Úbeda

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24580-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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The virulence of some infectious diseases seems to depend on the sex of the host the infection came from, as well as that of the current host. Here, McLeod et al. develop an epidemiological model to investigate the evolution of virulence when pathogens can retain epigenetic memories of their previous host.