Considering humans as habitat reveals evidence of successional disease ecology among human pathogens

Applying species succession to pathogens

31 March 2023

The age at which people are most likely to be infected by a pathogen can be estimated by applying ideas from theories that describe how species succeed each other.

Originally developed to describe plants and animals in natural ecosystems, ecological principles have been useful for gaining insights into how pathogens and parasites invade hosts. But the concept of species succession hasn’t been fully applied to them.

Now, by considering the human body as a habitat for 30 pathogens and parasites, a team led by a researcher from the University of Adelaide in Australia has investigated how six life-history traits influence pathogen infection.

They found that the life-history characteristics play a significant role in determining the average age of infection, which indicates the importance of considering microbe succession when evaluating the occurrence of diseases.

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References

1. PLOS Biology 20, e3001770 (2022). doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001770