Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:26:35.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are the pathogens of out-groups really more dangerous?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2012

Mícheál de Barra
Affiliation:
The Hygiene Centre, Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/[email protected]://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/curtis.val
Val Curtis
Affiliation:
The Hygiene Centre, Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/[email protected]://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/curtis.val

Abstract

We question the plausibility of Fincher & Thornhill's (F&T's) argument that localised pathogen-host coevolution leads to out-groups having pathogens more damaging than those infecting one's own family or religious group.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Corby-Harris, V. & Promislow, D. E. L. (2008) Host ecology shapes geographical variation for resistance to bacterial infection in Drosophila melanogaster . Journal of Animal Ecology 77(4):768–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoeksema, J. D. & Forde, S. E. (2008) A meta-analysis of factors affecting local adaptation between interacting species. The American Naturalist 171(3):275–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaltz, O., Gandon, S., Michalakis, Y. & Shykoff, J. A. (1999) Local maladaptation in the anther-smut fungus Microbotryum violaceum to its host plant Silene latifolia: Evidence from a cross-inoculation experiment. Evolution 53(2):395407.Google ScholarPubMed
Keeling, M. J. (1999) The effects of local spatial structure on epidemiological invasions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences 266(1421):859–67.Google ScholarPubMed
Miller, E. N., Fadl, M., Mohamed, H. S., Elzein, A., Jamieson, S. E., Cordell, H. J., Peacock, C. S., Fakiola, M., Madhuri, R., Eltahir, A. K., Elhassan, A., Musa, M. M., Muntaser, E. I. & Blackwell, J. M. (2007) Y chromosome lineage- and village-specific genes on chromosomes 1p22 and 6q27 control visceral leishmaniasis in Sudan. PLoS Genetics 3(5):679–88. e71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rougeron, V., De Meeus, T., Hide, M., Waleckx, E., Bermudez, H., Arevalo, J., Llanos-Cuentas, A., Dujardin, J. C., De Doncker, S., Le Ray, D., Ayala, F. J. & Banuls, A. L. (2009) Extreme inbreeding in Leishmania braziliensis . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106(25):10224–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salathé, M. & Jones, J. H. (2010) Dynamics and control of diseases in networks with community structure. PLoS Computational Biology 6(4):e1000736.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed