In a recently published article, researchers have attempted to model the effects of genetic drift on pathogen variations within hosts. The article claims that changes to pathogen genetics within hosts can alter the spread, severity, and host outcome from an infections disease. They then posit that genetic drift may play a role in shaping pathogen variation. The study created a mathematical model of gypsy moth baculovirus dynamics that allowed for genetic drift to occur between the gypsy moth hosts. Researchers then quantified the genome diversity of baculovirus populations from the 143 gypsy moth larvae using Illumina sequencing. They then went on to quantify whether genetic drift imposed by host-pathogen population dynamics in the model explained the levels of pathogenic diversity expressed in their data. Their model ultimately was attributed to accurately reproduce data, however the effects of drift were deemed to be too simplified due to the model ignoring transmission bottlenects and stochastic virus replication. The results ultimately show that genetic drift can play a strong role on pathogenic genetic variation and that future models should be able to explain much of this variation.
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- Louis
PLOS biology Monitor Update 3/3
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