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Science 2 November 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5851, pp. 812 - 814
DOI: 10.1126/science.1148526
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Reports

Disentangling Genetic Variation for Resistance and Tolerance to Infectious Diseases in Animals

Lars Råberg,1,2* Derek Sim,1{dagger} Andrew F. Read1{dagger}

Hosts can in principle employ two different strategies to defend themselves against parasites: resistance and tolerance. Animals typically exhibit considerable genetic variation for resistance (the ability to limit parasite burden). However, little is known about whether animals can evolve tolerance (the ability to limit the damage caused by a given parasite burden). Using rodent malaria in laboratory mice as a model system and the statistical framework developed by plant-pathogen biologists, we demonstrated genetic variation for tolerance, as measured by the extent to which anemia and weight loss increased with increasing parasite burden. Moreover, resistance and tolerance were negatively genetically correlated. These results mean that animals, like plants, can evolve two conceptually different types of defense, a finding that has important implications for the understanding of the epidemiology and evolution of infectious diseases.

1 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
2 Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Ecology Building, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.

{dagger} Present address: Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Departments of Biology and Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lars.raberg{at}zooekol.lu.se

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