Collaborators

Dr. Kristi Montooth (University of Nebraska)

Dr. Justin Buchanan (Vanderbilt University)

What we know

• When exposed to or infected by pathogens, hosts typically alter their intake of total calories and specific macronutrients.

• Hosts also exhibit altered physiologies such as changes in metabolic rates and metabolic pathways like glycolysis or ketosis.

• Pathogens and parasites rely on host nutrients for their own growth and development and can manipulate host behavior and physiology to their own ends.

• Just as pathogens can respond to vaccines and other control measures, they can also respond to changes in host resources and physiology.

What we DON’T know

• Do shifts in calorie intake, macronutrient preferences, and downstream physiologies arise as a defense strategy, and if so, do they serve in resistance (and what type of resistance exactly) or tolerance?

• How do these shifts affect pathogen fitness and therefore evolution?

Who Cares?

• Numerous medical and veterinary interventions, livestock practices, and other anthropogenic factors (e.g., eutrophication, fast food, bird feeders) alter the resources available to hosts (and therefore their pathogens/parasites) — while also administering drugs to control infections…..these practices, therefore, could be designed smarter (i.e., more “evolution-proof”) to help the host and starve the pathogen of key nutrients necessary to develop virulence factors and mechanisms of drug resistance.

• From a basic science perspective, a better understanding of the resource-tug of war that defines host-pathogen/parasite interactions can advance our understanding of some of the most abundant organisms on the planet, how they evolved, and co-evolved with their hosts.

Associated publications

Under Construction